For the past two months, the Creighton student body has been like a fish out of water following the closing of the Kiewit Fitness Center’s pool on Dec. 10. Swimming is a low stress workout and an easy way to unwind, and the pool was the perfect place to do it for free.

Due to necessary repairs and a tight budget for the next fiscal year, Creighton temporarily closed the Kiewit Fitness Center’s pool.

Now Creighton students can swim at a different pool.

The Creighton Department of Campus Recreation has been hard at work on securing a pool for Creighton students, and they have chosen the downtown YMCA just one mile south of campus at 430 S. 20th St.

“We researched a bunch of pools in the Omaha area,” said Bob Denney, interim director of Campus Recreation.

“We looked at UNO, College of St. Mary and Prairie Life out on 132nd. In the end, we chose the YMCA because of its close proximity to campus.”

Students are allowed two free swimming passes to the YMCA’s pool per week and each additional pass afterwards costs $5.

Faculty and staff can purchase swimming passes for $5, which is 50 percent off the normal price.

“The reason we have to have people pay is because we still have to pay for students to get in and say 1,000 students decide to go to the pool one week, that’s going to cost us $5,000,” Denney said.

“We’re definitely going to watch the amount of people who use the passes and try to adjust things accordingly.”

The YMCA’s pool is 25 yards long and has six lanes. At its shallowest it’s three and a half feet deep, and at it’s deepest it’s nine feet deep. The YMCA is very excited to have Creighton students using its pool.

“We’re hoping to generate a lot of interest in our programs,” said Kenneth Proctor, Program Director at the downtown YMCA.

“We’ve established some more adult swim programs, like stroke improvement and aquacise, and we’re hoping to see more young people take interest.”

The plan to use the YMCA pool started Feb. 4 and has been taking some time to catch on.

Proctor reportedly has only seen around a dozen students so far and the limit of only two passes per week has made some students decide to limit their visits to only two times a week.