Local company to travel to Omaha to help with Olympic trials

Wednesday, May 30, 2012
A Roachdale company, Spear Corp., will soon be heading to Omaha to help with the building of the Olympic trial pools. Spear Corp. has had experience with fast track projects like the Olympic trials beofere, but also services pools all over Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio. Brandon Knowling of Spear Corp., works with piping out of a valve vault for water toy features at Lynhurst seventh- and eighth-grade center in Indianapolis.

As London gears up for the Olympics, Spear Corp. of Roachdale is preparing to set up and maintain the Olympic trial pools this summer in Omaha, Neb., in June.

Spear Corp., which was started in 1984 by Jim Spear, mainly provides water treatment for commercial pools. The company also provides filtration and chemical treatments as well, mostly throughout Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio.

Brian Spear, Jim's son, has since taken over the company. Although retired, Jim is still very involved. The company currently has 25 employees, most of whom are from Putnam and Montgomery counties.

During the Olympic trials, Spear will be in charge of all the mechanicals including filtration and chemical treatment.

"We will be operating for 34 days," Brian Spear said. "We actually install all that equipment in the temporary pools."

Spear, which is represented by Myrtha Pools, was recommended for the job because of their experience with the equipment and the previous work they have done.

This fast-track job will require the company to build, fill and have the pool ready to swim within 14 days. They will be providing for two pools during the trials, one 50-meter, 16-lane warm-up pool and one 50-meter, 10-lane pool.

Nearly a mile and a half of pipe will be installed between the two pools.

This is one of the several fast-track type projects the company has undertaken. In 2004 the company also worked on the FINA Short Course World Swimming Championships, which were held at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

"I don't know if it's gotten us more business," explained Brian Spear. "But we're now looked at to help out with some larger projects."

The company installed two temporary pools, one for competitions and one for training in just one week. Both pools were removed in just under 36 hours.

Over the span of a year, Spear along with his team have been planning every last detail to make the application of this process go smoothly. Several trips to Omaha along with a trip to Italy, where the actual pools are manufactured, have also helped with the process.

Steven Asher of Spear Corp., works with a main drain at Bethel Park in Indianapolis.

"Everything must go perfectly to get this done in time," said Spear. "This is typically a 9-12 month project to do it in a normal scale, now we're crunching it in to 14 days."

After many months of meetings with U.S.A. Swimming, Century Link Center and the Omaha Sports Commission, the time is fast approaching for the plan to be executed. The pool itself will be filled on June 3. The actual trials are set to begin on June 25 and run until July 2.

The project will be headed by Spear along with 12 employees who are also making the trip to make things run smoothly.

"The pool will be torn down within four days," explained Spear. "It will then be moved to a permanent location."

Although, many believe that Indianapolis would be a better-suited location for the company, it just doesn't feel like home.

"I get asked a lot why we don't move to Indianapolis," said Spear. "There's a lot of good hardworking people out here. That's the big reason why we can take on a big project like this."

For now, the company is looking forward to working on the Olympic trial pools and hopes to continue on to even bigger projects in the future.

For more information on the Spear Corp., visit www.spearcorp.com.

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