County funds village pool upgrade

MOUNT BLANCHARD — Hancock County commissioners voted Thursday to donate $115,000 from a county loan fund to replace the bottom of Mount Blanchard's decades-old swimming pool. The county must obtain approval from the State Office of Community Development to donate the money from the County Revolving Loan Fund without getting repayment. The loan fund still will have a remaining balance of about $130,000. Normally funds are extended to public projects or small businesses as a loan. But public swimming pools are not lucrative. The village's pool levy cannot fund everything. The pool's bottom has had to undergo repairs in each of the past five years. "The maintenance is getting pretty high," said Dan Clements, pool project manager and retired village administrator. "It needs replaced." The pool bottom will be replaced after this season. Additional pool upgrades are needed and planned in the next three to five years, village officials said. "This is the first step of a multi-phase (project) because basically the whole (pool) needs to be (redone)," Mayor Cynthia Morrison said. "There's just a lot that needs to be done. We're just trying to save our pool because we love our pool. It's a great value to our community." Much will depend on obtaining outside funding, she said. She and Clements praised The Findlay-Hancock County Community Foundation as a "great partner." The Foundation contributed $25,000 last spring to pay for patching of the pool bottom, and it has found other funding sources for the village, Clements said. Two more phases of pool improvements are planned in the next few years. After replacement of the pool bottom, the village hopes to replace the concrete decking, or sidewalk around the top of the pool, which is coming apart. Some fencing around the pool also would be replaced. Estimated cost: $90,000-$100,000, Clements said. In a third phase, the pool area would gain more shade in renovations of the concession stand and main building and the construction of pavilions. Estimated cost: $50,000-$75,000. "Participating in (funding) that will be a lot of community development," Clements said. One family already has offered to donate funds toward a pavilion honoring a family member. "There will be a lot of that," he said. "The pool has been like that for a long time to keep operating – donations and selling bricks." "It's one of those things. Pools are extremely hard to … operate in the black," he said. "But it's a service that we continue to offer our community despite the fact that we're not making a lot of money on it, if anything." But Mount Blanchard officials may remedy that, too. "We're working on different ways of creating more income from the pool with pool parties and things," Clements said. "As it gets better and we do better with the concession, the pavilions and things, I think that will open up more business, if you will."