It's now time to turn our sights closer to home and ask what our Town has been doing while our population has more than doubled over the past several years.

Champion assistant editor Steve LeBlanc wrote in your paper last January that I was an outspoken member of the audience at the Milton Sports Centre when the Town announced its plans for expansion of the facility.

I have a passion for sports and a passion to ensure that kids have all of the facilities that they require so that they are able to excel to the best of their abilities in the sports of their choice, and I will continue to fight until someone does something to ensure this happens.

Turning specifically to swimming, I have -- as the president and a board member of the Milton Marlin Swim Team for the past 10 years -- been warning the Town that they have been running out of time regarding the building of a new swimming pool.

It seems that every year, when meeting with Town staff, we are told the date for the new pool has been pushed back. In 1998 a new pool was to be built in 2004, while at the above announcement at the Milton Sports Centre the date is now 2012.

As of last year, the Milton Leisure Centre pool is at capacity, Town run swimming lessons are full, open swims are full and the Marlins (17.5 rental hours per week for 10 months) and Milton Masters (30 person waiting list) are unable to rent enough time at the facility to properly run their programs.

While the Town continues to expand at breakneck speed, we have seen no movement regarding the planned new pool. With all of these programs full, what are residents supposed to do for the next four years? Where will their kids learn the important life lesson of swimming? Where will they compete?

For many years the Marlins have also been renting the pool at E.C. Drury High School, now rented for the maximum 12 hours per week.

Recently the Marlins have been informed that the Drury pool will be closed for at least a month, and that there's a chance it will be closed permanently due to severe maintenance problems.

The Town has been relying on this pool to take the overflow of Marlin swimmers as the town has expanded. The loss of the Drury pool will affect more than 100 swimmers and could destroy our feeder system that turns young kids into competitive swimmers.

Without a feeder system, the competitive team will likely die -- affecting a further 50 kids. Why has it come to this?

As Milton grows, it's the responsibility of the Town to meet the leisure needs of its residents. As a town of 70,000 expanding to 120,000 in the next several years, we have reached a point where these facilities must be built within Milton rather than the Town relying on larger neighbouring communities to support our residents' needs.

New residents will lead the way with an increasing demand, not only on sports currently catered for in Milton but for new sports such as squash, indoor soccer, indoor tennis, a proper skateboard park, a BMX facility and the aquatic sports of diving, water polo, scuba diving, kayaking, synchronized swimming and life guarding to name just a few.

It's time for the residents of our town to question our politicians as to their apparent lack of action regarding youth sports facilities.

RICHARD DAVIS, PRESIDENT MILTON MARLINS SWIM CLUB