Designs Shared for New $3M Pleasantville Village Pool
Designs for a new and larger Pleasantville municipal pool complex were presented last week for the first time to the Village Board.
The Pleasantville Pool Task Force revealed renderings of the proposed $3 million modernization, which would replace the current pool at the Lake Street facility.
“We’re essentially preserving what is a 100-year-old asset of the community,” said task force member Jim Kennedy. “This pool is more like 70 years old and multiple generations are going to own this facility.”
Pool Task Force chair Troy Tassier briefly discussed the survey sent out to the community earlier this year, which received about 1,000 responses representing roughly 3,500 people, he said.
Survey responses favored maintaining a separate kiddie pool, a larger deck space, zero-level entry for children and older adults, and more access to lap lanes. Others wanted to see a pool that provided more fun.
“We added more pizazz wanted by pre-teens, who said the pool was boring,” Kennedy said.
There would be a three-level water slide in a corner of the large pool, which would be 11,017 square feet, about 20 percent larger than the current pool. It would have a zero-entry area and additional lap lanes. A diving board is also being considered.
The design for the kiddie pool has zero entry, geysers and a bucket dump in the center.
The kiddie pool would remain about the same size as the one that is currently at the facility and will be no more than one-and-a-half feet deep. A fence will separate the two pools.
A major change is the relocation of the outdated, underground pump and filter building. It would be moved closer to the basketball courts, allowing for more deck space. The pump and filter building have caused flooding and other problems over the years.
The fence that abuts the Pleasantville Cottage School would be moved closer to the property line to stretch out the space and increase the seating area around the pool, Tassier said.
The estimated $3 million project would be financed by issuing bonds and modestly increased membership fees. The village is exploring other funding options, and estimates the project may add about $40 to the average property owner’s village taxes.
An online town hall forum via Zoom is being considered by the board for Thursday, Aug. 19 at 7:30 p.m. to receive community feedback on the proposed pool design and construction.
The timeline for construction would be geared toward preventing the loss of a pool season. Final drawings are expected by the end of this year. In early 2022, the village plans to seek needed county health department approvals, go out to bid and retain a contractor by next summer. Plans call for keeping next summer’s swim season intact and soon after the pool closes, to start construction and have the new pool ready by summer 2023.
“If we want to have a pool for the next 50 years, as we have for the past 50 years, it’s time to rebuild,” Mayor Peter Scherer said. “We are spending money on the existing pool to stretch out its life, but if you really want to keep a pool for the long haul, now’s our time.”
Abby is a local journalist who has reported on breaking news for more than 20 years. She currently covers community issues in The Examiner as a full-time reporter and has written for the paper since its inception in 2007. Read more from Abby’s editor-author bio here. Read Abbys’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/ab-lub2019/
