The public swimming pool in Cressona is in danger of not opening for the 2025 season.
On Monday, borough officials discussed the numerous structural and mechanical issues plaguing the pool right now and they’re unsure if there’s enough time to get them fixed in time for the start of the 2025 swimming season.
Mechanical Issues and Winter’s Wrath
According to Cressona’s Public Works Supervisor Frank Killian, the major problems at the pool stem from a faulty well pump and filtration pump.
There’s also a need for updated electrical service to the pool and the borough is waiting on PPL for that work to get underway.
Furthering the problems, springs located under the pool froze during the particularly cold winter months. When they froze, it caused the floor of the pool to heave. Killian said there are controlled joints there so it’s supposed to move and it did, but those joints need to be restored.
The pool also heaved where there aren’t controlled joints, so the problems within the pool multiplied. But the problems don’t end there. When the pool heaved, a skimmer box on the side didn’t move with it and that may have damaged the plumbing. If the pool’s plumbing was damaged, damages could be in the many thousands of dollars.
Killian told council members that when plumbing was damaged in the early-1990s, it cost the borough about $190,000 to make the repairs.
Cressona won’t know if the damage is that severe until they’re able to fill the pool.
To get to that point, a new well pump is needed. That cost, the borough estimates, will be at least $30-40,000, not including the cost of labor.
If it’s determined that the plumbing is damaged, all pipes will have to be investigated for possible damage. That’s when repair costs will be exponentially higher.
Routine Repairs Already Behind Schedule
Routine seasonal maintenance, plus repairing the control joints, must happen, too. And that can’t happen until the pool drains of the water that’s in it now. Killian said that could take another week or so in ideal conditions.
Still, even when the work begins, it’ll take time and the borough is already behind schedule on account of weather. Council President Linda Walinsky said seasonal work typically begins at the pool on March 1.
Killian said curing time on all the materials used to make seasonal repairs in the pool will move the start date back on a lot of the major work. It takes four weeks for any hydraulic cement or mortar to cure. After that, caulking would take another week to cure. Paint on top of those materials would take another week.
The work that needs to be done after that would take a few weeks, at minimum.
Sharing the Cost Burden
Simply put, Cressona doesn’t have the money on its own to make these repairs – even if the plumbing somehow escaped damage – this year.
“I just think we’re backed up into a corner,” Walinsky said. “I think, fiscally, for this community, that … we don’t say we’re closing it forever. We just don’t open it this year.”
Enter the Blue Mountain Recreation Commission.
Recreation Director Josh Semanco and Board President Wayne Bowen were in attendance at Monday’s Cressona meeting and did say that Blue Mountain Rec would be willing to help defray some of the costs to repair the pool.
After all, as it was revealed on Monday, only 14% of the entrance fees collected last year were from Cressona residents.
“We are willing to help eat some of these costs,” Semanco said. “The Recreation Commission is behind the pool and getting it operational.”
Semanco added that the topic of the Cressona pool was mentioned at the Recreation Commission’s last monthly meeting in February. In addition to contributing funds to repair costs, he said the Rec board would be willing to help Cressona apply for grant funding to help with pool expenses.
Just how much the Recreation Commission would be willing to help with Cressona’s major pool problems right now was not decided on Monday. However, Bowen said that the Rec Commission could possibly start with helping to pay for the well pump, which will allow the borough to see just how much damage was caused over the winter.
A decision on whether the Cressona pool will open this season and how much the Recreation Commission can help is likely to happen toward the end of March. A possible special meeting of each board, or a joint meeting with both boards, is possible.
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