By Trent Moore

With two young children on the Prattville Flying Fish swim team, the Turnbow family — grandparents and all — made the trek to Cullman this weekend for the ARPA state swim meet at the Cullman Wellness and Aquatic Center.

James Turnbow, father of young competitors Bryce, 8, and Bailey, 6, said his family has been competing in swim meets for years.

“It started with my dad, but back then they had to swim in the river because they didn’t have pools,” he joked, patting his father on the shoulder. “They had to just toss a rope across and hope they could get to it.”

The Turnbows were joined by more than 5,000 other swimmers, coaches and spectators who also spent some time in Cullman for the three-day competition.

Local hotels, restaurants and businesses reported a large surge brought on by the teams, some of which came from as far as Opelika and Dothan for the event.

Cullman Parks and Recreation Director John Hunt said the three-day competition — the state’s largest swim meet — acted as a $6-7 million catalyst for the local economy.

“I was trying to put a pencil to it, and that’s actually a low estimate, really,” Hunt said. “This meet had a huge impact on Cullman. Hotels were booked up and there were a lot more people coming through town.”

Approximately 1,200 swimmers participated in the meet, in addition to coaches and families.

“Once you factor in the spectators that come along it really is a lot of people,” Hunt said.

Counting food and lodging bills, James said his family spent hundreds of dollars in Cullman during the three-day meet.

“We spent $500, at least, since we ate fast food in town and spent all of the nights at the hotel,” he said.

More than anything, James said what struck him most about the weekend was the quality of Cullman’s new aquatic center.

“This is the best swim facility we’ve been to, by far,” he said. “This place is beautiful, and you guys are lucky to have it. Prattville desperately needs a place like this.”

Nancy Turnbow, also known as “Grandma,” said she had a great time staying in Cullman, as well.

“The hospitality here was just fantastic,” she said. “This is just a really great place.”

Kathy Crocker and Robin Powell, both mothers of Dothan Dolphins, said they took a few shopping trips around Cullman in between their children’s meets on Friday.

“I’ve already been to Hobby Lobby and WalMart,” Powell said. “We don’t have a Hobby Lobby at home, so that was nice.”

“We also went to Ryan’s for dinner,” Crocker added.

Hunt said the overall weekend was a huge success for the city, adding the aquatic center will likely host the comparable-in-size district swim meet next year.

“Everyone in this community should be very happy, not just because of the economic impact, but for the recognition Cullman gets across the state from this,” he said.

Economic boost

Numerous local hotels and businesses noted a spike in customers caused by the competition.

“We were actually booked up the whole weekend for the swim meet,” Comfort Suites employee Sarah Doss said. “We have seen a big increase because of that.”

Days Inn Manager Pete Schmudlach agreed that the meet brought in a large crowd.

“We [had] four teams staying with us for the weekend, some from as far out as Opelika,” Schmudlach said. “There wasn’t anything else going on this weekend, so we wouldn’t have those bookings without (the meet). For us, the numbers were about the same as a big ball tournament at Heritage Park.”

Sandra Thrasher, Quality Inn manager, said the swim meet has brought in larger groups than most other sporting events.

“With the swim teams, they have more kids on the team than the ball teams do,” she said. “We’ve seen a pretty good bit of people come through because of it.”

The meet came at a good time in the summer, said Hampton Inn manager Tabatha Smothers, as business has been in a slump for the month of July.

“Bookings were about average for a tournament, but we did have some rooms left to sell on Friday,” she said. “It’s been a pretty slow month. What we really need are people to stay two or three nights, because normally we just have the one-night stay.”

Chick-Fil-A manager Tyler Davis said the Cullman franchise experienced quite a bit of traffic this weekend, and Chick-Fil-A representatives were also on hand at the meet to give out coupons.

“I would say this is even a little more people than a big Heritage Park tournament,” he said. “We have definitely seen a lot of folks come through.”

Cullman Cracker Barrel Manager Carolyn Freeman said she noticed a large increase in customers for the weekend, as well.

“A lot of folks actually came in Thursday and Friday evening,” she said. “We saw several big groups come in with swim teams.”

• Trent Moore can be reached by e-mail at trentm@cullmantimes.com, or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 225.