BENNETTSVILLE—The Marlboro County Aquatic Center, which will be part of the Marlboro County Golf and Recreation Complex, will provide an option for citizens to swim, exercise and provide opportunities for Marlboro County High School to host swim meets. The center is scheduled to open in the summer of 2025. And with the current state of Lake Paul Wallace, following two dam breaches, this will be the only local option for community members to swim.

But there has been push back from county council members when it comes to completing the funding for the center.

County Administrator, Wilson “Tony” Clyburn, said building the center will not cause a tax increase or force the county to pull funds from the budget. Marlboro County has $350,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding from the Broad Street project, $340,000 from the state for the Lake Paul Wallace Boardwalk project, and $285,000 in federal ARPA funds from the golf course. With the reallocation of the $975,000, completing the center doesn’t create a shortfall for the county or end work on the other projects.

“The one thing to remember about this aquatic center is it is not a county swimming pool,” Clyburn said. “The aquatic center is a part of the recreation complex. That complex started with the golf course and it includes the aquatic center. It also includes an 18-hole putt-putt facility that will go right above the swimming pool. It will also include and event lawn and it will also include pickle-ball courts. It’s not the golf course on one hand and a swimming pool on the other, they are the same project. It’s always been the same project. Some people would like to separate that project for the sake of getting what they want out of that project. As a government, we have to satisfy all the taxpayers when it comes to stuff like recreation.”

Right now, the only recreation available in Marlboro County is geared toward children playing sports. Clyburn said everyone won’t play on a sports team. And then there is the senior community. The county doesn’t offer any recreation for elderly people, but having the aquatic center would provide more options for the diverse community of the county, Clyburn said.

“We look forward to making sure that all of our citizens have access to that aquatic center and take advantage of the programs that we will have available for them,” he said. “It’s going to make for a really nice, all-inclusive recreational complex for all of Marlboro County.”

The state of the Lake

Since May, Lake Paul Wallace has been closed to swimming. When the dam was breached, extensive flooding was expected in the Shady Rest and Richardson Park neighborhoods in the city of Bennettsville. In July there was a second dam breach. It has been reported that it may be three years before the lake reopens for swimming.

Clyburn said the aquatic center isn’t trying to replace Lake Paul Wallace. Because the center will have swimming lessons, it will make the lake safer when it reopens.

“I know that they are going to fix that lake and they are going to try and do that as soon as possible, but we also know that it is going to take time,” he said.

Not like Darlington

At the most recent county council meeting, council member Verd Odom, voiced concerns about the center, citing the closure of the county’s pool and two drownings that happened there. Odom also said the pool had staffing issues as well.

However, Darlington County is also home to Neptune Island, a water park with far more amenities than what had been offered by the county’s pool.

“This was approved a year ago,” Clyburn said. “If this was an issue, it should’ve been brought up then.”

Lake Paul Wallace is owned by the S.C. Department of Natural Resources when the Herald-Advocate reached out to DNR to find out how many people drowned in the lake since it’s inception in the 1950s, the information wasn’t available.