Cressona Launching $1.2 Million Capital Campaign to Rebuild Public Swimming Pool

Cressona is launching a $1.2 million capital campaign to restore its public swimming pool.

The “Cash for Splash” campaign is seeking funds to help not only restore the pool that had to spend this past summer closed to the public, but create a place that can serve generations more in the community.

“We have to start somewhere and this is the start,” Cressona council president Linda Walinsky tells The Canary.

This past year, Cressona officials were forced to make the difficult decision to close its popular swimming pool after a harsh winter caused severe structural damage.

Going forward, the Borough faced a dilemma: stick a Band-Aid on the pool and get it reopened in a hurry or take a pause and create a longer-lasting solution so the recreation spot is ready to serve the public for decades into the future.

Neither option was cheap. That proverbial Band-Aid carries about a quarter-million-dollar price tag. And there’d be no guarantee the Borough wouldn’t face problems similar to what it faced this past year in the very near future.

Walinsky says the Borough has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years just to keep it open as-is. And its life expectancy was running short.

“We couldn’t expect to have that pool much longer,” she says.

So, Cressona is going with a fix it hopes will last much longer, “a pool for the ages,” Walinsky says.

It’s a more expensive fix, surely, and the Borough knows it can’t go it alone to rebuild it.

It’s been revealed that of all the gate receipts from people who visited Cressona pool in the last summer it was open, just 14% of all visitors actually lived in Cressona. It’s the only outdoor public swimming pool in that part of Schuylkill County.

That’s one of the reasons why Cressona is reaching out to a broader audience and looking for donations to the ambitious project.

In the past year, the Borough has consulted with two swimming pool engineering companies and Walinsky says their quotes for a new, modern pool are about the same. That price tag, however, is bigger than Cressona’s annual operating budget.

And while the Borough isn’t closing the door on seeking public grant funding for the project, it wants to reach out to private donors first, to potentially skip some of the time-draining regulatory steps – like feasibility studies – that are often required to get that money.

Those grants, Walinsky says, often require matching funds, too.

“If you apply for a $500,000 grant, you better have $500,000,” she says.

Pursuing a new pool and trying to raise $1.2 million could mean that those who’ve come to enjoy the Cressona Pool over the years may have to wait another year for it to reopen.

“That’s unfortunately, probably a reality unless this money magically appears,” Walinsky says.

To accept donations for the pool, the community group Cressona Cares Committee is establishing itself as a non-profit 501(c) organization.

CRESSONA POOL: Coal Region Canary was the first news outlet in Schuylkill County to report about the Cressona Pool closure and has been following the story to get it reopened all year. Check out our full coverage below:

• Public Swimming Pool in Cressona in Danger of Not Opening in 2025
• Cressona Pool Won’t Open in 2025
• Minersville Will Offer Local Swimming Discount to Cressona, Schuylkill Haven Residents
• POOL CLOSURE PLOT TWIST: Legion Tells Cressona Council, ‘We Want Our Land Back’
• Cressona Says It Will Defend Pool Land Ownership
• Cressona Provides Update on Public Swimming Pool

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