Kedron Pool's First Winter Without the Bubble

In past winters, the outdoor pool at the Kedron Fieldhouse & Aquatic Center was covered by an inflatable air structure. Peachtree City has confirmed that structure is gone for good.

Mayor Kim Learnard said it plainly to The Citizen in April: "The Kedron bubble has seen its final days. It's gone and it's not coming back."

This means that for at least one winter, Kedron is an outdoor pool. The approved rebuild is the city's answer: a pool with a permanent enclosure, so winter swimming no longer hangs on a temporary cover. The rest of this post covers how the change plays out this winter and what is still being decided.

The first visible change is swim lessons

Kedron families have already seen the effect on lessons. A September 14, 2026 notice from the pool's lesson program said lessons at Kedron would be "temporarily unavailable for the winter season" starting in October 2026, "because the air structure at Kedron will not be installed for the 2026–2027 winter season."

The notice says the water is still heated. Without a cover, though, "the facility temperature will become increasingly cold as the winter months progress." Lessons are expected to resume at Kedron when the weather warms up. If the renovation gets in the way, the plan is to hold lessons at Glenloch in summer 2027.

The notice covers lessons only. It doesn't say the pool is closed, and it doesn't post a winter open swim schedule. It sends swimmers to the city's Open Swim Times & Fees page. If you swim laps or do water aerobics at Kedron, check that page before you go. Hours set in summer may not hold through a winter without a cover.

Why the city chose to rebuild

A bubble that wore out could have been replaced, and the pool could have been patched. City staff described a pool with more problems than that.

At the October 7 open house, the McIntosh High student paper The Trail quoted Harold Layton, Peachtree City's Director of Recreation and Special Events: "We're currently facing a pool that's 35 to 40 years old. We're constantly having issues arise with plumbing, electrical, lights being out, things of that nature." The city's own letter, as reported by The Citizen in April, called the facility "nearly 30 years old." The ages don't match, but the problems do. The letter lists "substantial work to its concrete, tile, piping, and electrical systems."

Layton also said the pool has had leaks that cost money to fix. He described the decision this way: "We start from scratch and build a new pool at a set price, and then we're good for the next 40-50 years."

The bubble and the pool problems ended up as one decision. The old cover was done, the pool needed new plumbing and wiring, and that work can't happen with swimmers in the water. Learnard explained the timing in April:

"You can't do the plumbing and the wiring and build a structure over it while you keep it open."

She also said the pool "will be closed for a year. It will be closed. We will miss a season." In May, after council voted, Fayette County News reported a softer goal. Officials want to keep closures as short as possible, though some full closures may still be needed.

What's decided and what isn't

The plan has been fixed in stages. Here is where things stood as of mid-October 2026, based on public reporting.

The design presented October 7 by project architect Brandon Fairbanks of WM2A in Macon includes eight competition lanes and a separate four-lane recreational pool. It also has a wheelchair-accessible entry ramp, a wider area beside the main pool where kids can play while a parent swims laps, a warm-up area for meets, and a proposed larger splash pad and sundeck. The concept council approved in May also listed an ADA pool lift, new plumbing designs, and bleachers.

Before deciding, city leaders visited facilities in Jefferson and Chamblee. Afterward, they asked the architect to design a sprung structure that covers both pools.

One detail you may have seen stated with more confidence than the sources support is the pool's length. Fayette County News has called Kedron "the only 50-meter pool in Fayette County." A 2025 letter in The Citizen described it as an "8-lane x 25 yard pool," and a reader comment on the Fayette County News story says the same. The Trail reported the new lanes as 25 meters and quoted the city's recreation site as listing a 25-yard competitive pool. If lane length matters to your training or your team, the final design documents will settle it.

One pool for a whole county, paid for by one city

The winter gap affects many people because so many depend on this one pool. At the open house, Learnard said, as quoted by The Trail, "this is the only public pool facility to serve the whole county. We serve all five high schools and we have tremendous demand on this pool." The Trail also reported that McIntosh practices there and that teams like Starr's Mill use Kedron for practice too.

Peachtree City residents carry most of the cost. City Manager Justin Strickland told The Trail that construction and maintenance are "pretty much Peachtree City taxpayers." Day-to-day operations are "a little bit of both," since swimmers from outside the city pay fees. Michelle A. Johnson, Assistant Director of Recreation and Special Events, said school swim teams book time through the Fayette County Board of Education and pay a monthly fee.

There's no backup facility for the off-season. Learnard said in April, "I only have that one pool to give." Glenloch, the city's other public pool, is in her words "a very small summer outdoor recreational pool."

The local swim community agrees the next year will be hard and expects the result to be better. Mike Wardwell, head coach and owner of Chattahoochee Gold, told The Trail it "will be challenging for a year, but in the long run, I think it will be an improvement," and that "having an enclosed facility that is newer and more up to date, would be good for everybody." A resident pointed to the deeper water in the new plan as a gain.

How to keep up with Kedron this winter

Learnard has said the city will keep taking input "until we decide that this is the way we're going to go," especially on bleachers and layout. The start date and closure window haven't been announced yet, and these are the places that will carry them:

1. The Slice, the city's weekly e-newsletter. The mayor named it as the main channel for project updates.
2. The Kedron Fieldhouse & Aquatic Center page on the city site. Its address is 202 Fieldhouse Drive.
3. The Open Swim Times & Fees page for current open swim hours.
4. City Council meeting materials on the Government Meetings page, where a construction contract or start date would show up first.

Kedron isn't the only recreation project on the city's list. At the same May 21 meeting where the pool concept was approved, council also approved a $266,678 playground for the new Meade Field Pickleball Complex.

Projects like the Kedron rebuild change a household's weekly routine. If you're timing a move around a swimmer's schedule, or around how close you'll be to the facilities your family uses, Angela Yoder follows these projects closely and can help you understand where things stand. Schedule a consultation, and we'll talk through what fits your family's routine.