Nearly two years after the Grottoes Town Council announced the closure of its swimming pool, the governing body reversed course with plans to reopen this season on Memorial Day weekend.
The Town Council voted at its Jan. 13 meeting to move forward with the opening of the pool the last weekend in May.
Getting to this point wasn’t easy; it took a community of swimmers who refused to let the pool be permanently closed, or worse, demolished.
The effort to get the pool open again was spearheaded by local residents, many who had frequented the pool with their family for decades, who organized and eventually formed the Grottoes Pool Preservation Foundation.
Town: No plans for demolition but no funds for repairs
The Town Council voted in February 2023 to close the pool citing problems with water leaks, repairs needed to an expansion joint and ongoing staffing issues.
At the time, the town estimated the pool had leaked 9.4 million gallons of water since 2016, and despite efforts to repair it, it continued to have more leaks.
Located at Grand Caverns, the town took ownership of the pool in 2010.
The Town Council estimated the work needed at the pool could cost up to $200,000.
Grottoes Mayor Jo Plaster told AFP that the Council was open to providing the amenity again but worried it didn’t have enough money to deal with the current issues.
“That is not to say, that we would not like to provide this amenity in the future. However, we must have the revenue to do so,” said Plaster.
Grottoes had spent $300,000 to renovate the pool before COVID and had added swim lanes, a kid area, a mushroom water feature for a splash zone and a walk-in entrance.
It seemed it was too early to throw in the towel on the future of the pool, at least that’s what foundation members believed.
Foundation steps in to save the swimming pool
Volunteers rallied the community and local businesses to get behind the project and worked to raise money for repairs to get the lanes open again.
Foundation Treasurer Nadina Pupic said the pool leak was repaired in November at a cost of $30,000, a fraction of what the Town Council had feared. The foundation, through community donations, stepped up to pay for the work.
“The pool seems to be holding water even through all the cold weather, so we are optimistic on that front,” said Pupic.
The town also wants to replace the concrete pool deck before re-opening and has received several bids for the work. The estimated cost is around $70,000. Pupic said the foundation has offered to put $30,000 toward the concrete work.
“Our next focus is raising funds for beautification of the pool area and to help re-establish our snack shack,” said Pupic.
The foundation believes the snack area could be a source for revenue to re-invest in improving the pool house, lifeguard station and ticket booth.
“We just held a very successful fundraising event at Alpine Goat Brewery in Weyers Cave this past Saturday, where we added another $4,000 to our raised funds putting us at close to $70,000 raised in total,” Pupic said.
“We spent time reflecting this weekend as we have reached almost two years since the town voted on demolishing the pool, and one year since we filed for our 501c3 nonprofit status.”
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Crystal Graham
