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Future remains cloudy for Harrisburg pool

Every spring, the Harrisburg Township Park District board asks itself the same question: Can we afford to open the pool this year?

Built in 1965, and today a continual source of nagging, expensive problems, the question will arise in the spring, too, says parks director Ron Emery.

In the past few years the park district has renovated the bathhouses, painted the pool and fixed the fences. Last year, it invested $65,000 to fix the main drain, which, Emery suspects, put added pressure on the water jets that circulate the pool water.

Pool engineers are coming in next week to see about the jets, and to investigate a crack that has opened up in one wall.

"Most of the issues with the pool are underground, which people can't see," Emery said Thursday. A lot of the pipes are old copper, he added, where today's pools mostly use PVC piping.

Like most public pools, the Harrisburg pool loses money each year. If it ever made money, it was back in the 1970s when kids didn't have as many entertainment choices and coming to the park pool was a big deal, Emery added.

However, he said the park district views the pool as a quality of life issue for Harrisburg residents that transcends whether it makes money. They want to keep the pool going for as long as they can.

"It's a public service that's important to the community," Emery said.

A new pool would cost between $2.5 million and $3 million, and would require a tax hike referendum, which Emery says flat-out he would never recommend.

Besides, "Even if we put a new pool in we couldn't afford to keep it open," he added.