Time for a long, cool farewell

Padonia Swim Club is being sold to large church

He still works 60- to 80-hour weeks.

"We can't do it for another 50 years," he said. "The church not only needs it, but they serve the community also, in a different way."

The church, which now rents a space with 1,100 seats, holds four services each week to accommodate about 3,000 people. "We just think it isn't right for a church to have a 'no vacancy' sign on the door," said Dennis O'Brien, the senior pastor. His growing church has a second site in Shrewsbury, Pa., and is planning to open a third, in Baltimore's Federal Hill, early next year.

The swim club is a perfect spot for the base church because it's so close to the current location, O'Brien said. The plan is to use some of the land for the church building and parking and to preserve green space for walking paths, children's programs and the like.

Fred Rigger said he knew club members, who pay different amounts to join depending on the type of membership, would be disappointed about the decision, but he has been a bit surprised by the outpouring of emotion.

"It's more overwhelming than I thought," he said. "I never knew we made such an impact."

He was walking around the property, pointing out the pond, the gazebo, the Olympic-size pool, the baby pool, the ballroom and the snack bar. Plastic toys floated in the baby pool, children squealed, a teenager did a flip off the diving board and someone in a red polka dot bikini stretched out on a lounge chair. The air smelled like hot concrete and chlorine.

"This is my life," Fred Rigger said, looking around. "There's a little of all of us in this place."

Out in the parking lot, Caroline Hebditch was heading home with her wet-headed children in tow. It's terribly disappointing, she said, before voicing the thought that many longtime members are not-very-secretly harboring.

"I just hope they won't close it," she said. "I hope that something happens so that it doesn't go that far."

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