Coudersport Pool Needs Repairs; Survey Out to Residents

From the Endeavor News

In announcing that Coudersport’s public pool will close Sunday, Coudersport Borough Manager Marlin “Mud” Moore noted that attendance at the pool this year was up dramatically, which has alleviated some of its funding issues.

“It was a heck of a summer at the pool,” Moore said. “It generated a lot more money. The revenue basically paid the wages.”

That’s roughly $25,000, Moore noted, creating a shortfall of approximately $18,000 to be picked up by the borough and the school district.

Additional costs are coming, though, Moore told his colleagues, noting that there are at least two leaks that must be repaired.

Moore will seek quotes for the repairs before September’s meeting in an effort to get the work done this fall.

Moore told council members that members of the Save Our Area Pool (SOAP) group have offered to fund this year’s repairs.

“That concerns me because the idea of them raising money was to replace or improve the pool,” council member Gerry Chitester commented. “I’m just concerned where are right back where we started.”

Chitester was eluding to the debate of two years ago when council members nearly closed the pool because the borough simply could not afford to operate it. SOAP formed and has since been raising money in an effort to either build a new pool or financially support the current one. SOAP has raised $30,000 to date.

“It’s pretty evident, at least to me, that they’re never going to raise enough money to build a new pool,” Moore said. “But, there are other things they can do to improve the pool.”

Moore said adding a slide and lounge chairs are a couple of suggestions that have been made.

In a related matter, Moore noted that the borough will survey its residents as to their opinions about the pool.

A survey will appear in September’s sewer and water bills.

“Hopefully, we’ll get a good idea of what people are thinking by next month’s meeting,” Moore said of the survey.

In other business, council approved an engineer study to be conducted by E&M Engineers of Bradford.

E&M will create an engineering study that will assist the borough in bonding roads that could potentially be damaged by large truck traffic created by local natural gas drilling.

There are 20 roads on the list, including sections or all of Allegany Ave., Arch St., Avenue A, Chestnut St., Damascus Rd., Dwight St., Elk St., Eulalia St., Maple St., Mill St., N. West St., Niles Hill Rd., Oak St., Park Ave., Parkview St., Reese Hollow Rd., Ross St., S. West St., W. Second St. and Water St.

In other business, council members agreed to spend up to $2,300 for tree removal in Mitchell Park and CARP, as well as near the community pool.

Coudersport Borough meetings are held on the third Wednesday of each month at 6:30 pm in the borough maintenance facility in the industrial park.

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