ETOWAH, Tenn. -- The bullfrogs basking in the sun don't mind the aging condition of Etowah's nearly 45-year-old pool, but a local resident has offered $300,000 to pair up with grant money to build a new one for the city's humans.
The old pool at Sixth Street and Louisiana Avenue was state of the art when it was built in 1970. City leaders had been discussing a pool for the community beginning in the 1960s, according to Parks and Recreation Director Brian Silber.
But by the 1990s, the pool was showing its age and maintenance costs were starting to mount, Silber said. In 2007, city leaders finally closed the pool.
The pool doesn't leak; it's full to a standard level. But the filtration system's pipes under the concrete leak badly, the chlorination system doesn't work at all, and almost everything else there falls short of requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act or the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Act, Silber said. The latter act refers to safety requirements specific to public pools.
A $300,000 gift to the city of Etowah could result in a new swimming pool to replace the dilapidated pool at the corner of Sixth Street and Louisiana Avenue. The old pool has not been used, at least by humans, in several years. Here, some baby bullfrogs are bracketed by some bigger ones all of whom appear to be in need of lounge chairs.
The old pool in Etowah, Tenn., hasn't been in use since around 2007 and is out of standard for safety and accessibility. An anonymous donor has offered $300,000 to team with grant funding for a new pool.Etowah, home to about 3,500 people, already has a fun water project underway in the form of a splash pad, which will be built on the site of the old pool. Silber hopes that project, being funded by a Local Parks and Recreation Fund grant, is completed by next spring. The city needs to finish that to be able to apply for another grant to go with the $300,000 donation.
The donor approached Etowah Mayor Burke Garwood about the financial gift in hopes of reopening the old pool, but the splash pad project already was in the works so that wasn't an option, Silber said.
"So, the donor has committed [the] $300,000 gift and we're going to attempt to use that for matching funds for a grant for the new pool," Silber said. "Time-wise we're right in line with where we need to be to finish with the splash pad by the next grant cycle."
There are at least a couple of potential locations for the new pool. The first and most obvious is just up the hill from the present pool on Sixth Street, Silber said. The second is at the city's 25,000-square-foot community center on the north end of town where ADA-compliant restrooms are already in place, he said.
If the new pool is built at the community center, "we could incorporate fitness classes into the pool," he said. The con to the community center location is that it is farther from the downtown area.
"Ultimately, the City Commission will decide the location," he said.
Local Parks and Recreation Fund grants come with requirements for public meetings to make sure the pool meets demands of folks in Etowah.
Meetings will be scheduled at varying times on varying days. The meetings will be announced in the local newspaper and through social media and the city's Facebook page, officials said.
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfree press.com or twitter.com/ BenBenton or www.facebook.com/ben.benton1 or 423-757-6569.