Plains pool sees over $11K in improvements

PLAINS – Swimmers using the Plains Pool will notice a lot of improvements when entering the newly updated pool. The town has used a grant of over $11,280 to help bring the popular swimming area to code.

A handful of safety concerns were fixed, giving the pool area new lifeguard platforms and steps as well as dividers in the dressing rooms.

“We were having a lot of problems because all of the dividers were rusted so they were falling down and because of the frames, they were rotting,” Plains Mayor Greg Eitelberg said.

The lifeguard platforms had also deteriorated greatly and were rotten, hence being deemed unsafe.

The total cost to replace both the steps and the platforms was over $1,000, while replacing the dividers cost almost $7,000 – the biggest expense for the improvements.

The final touches were put on the pool on Thursday, July 3.

 The town also repaired the shower fixtures, replaced the outside doors to both bathrooms, purchased a bathroom booth for the outside of the girl’s bathroom, fixed outside light covers, repaired concrete cracks around the pool, repaired and/or replaced the concrete sidewalk in front of the building, painted the diving board platform, and replaced the umbrellas.

“Everything absolutely was much needed to be done,” Mayor Eitelberg said. “The safety concerns were obviously my first concern.”

The reason the pool had to undergo such a major overhaul was partly because of a gap in maintenance work. From now on, the town plans to provide upkeep on a yearly basis.

The grant the town utilized for $11,283 was provided by a Plains-based organization, the Committee for Safe Swimming. Although the funds were awarded to the pool, Mayor Eitelberg believed he would come in under budget and was planning to return any unused funds to the committee.

“I think I’m going to come in under budget just a little bit,” Mayor Eitelberg said.

He hoped to have an under run of approximately $500.

The renovations started long before the mayor received the money from the Committee for Safe Swimming and even before the pool opened.

“I started as soon as we started working on the pool this year,” Mayor Eitelberg said. “I actually have plans to do some further clean up even going into next year.”

He hopes to replace the flooring in the pool building, but the material is expensive.

The non-skid material alone would cost between $700-$800.

As of now the mayor is trying to come up with the funds in the town’s budget. He would also like to put some exhaust fans in the ceiling, closing off the ceiling so it was no longer open.

“It would make it look a lot nicer in there,” Mayor Eitelberg said. “I would like to over the next couple of years continue to work on it.”

So far the changes have been plentiful. Many have been needed, while some have been to create a nicer looking pool area for the community to enjoy. It’s evident that the work does not stop here. The plans to continue to improve the pool are already in the works for next year.