Anyone longing for a look into the past can take a swim at the Lebanon Community Pool; the original plaster and cast iron pipes are still in place from 1967.
Lorlee Engler, executive aquatic district director, said it would take about $1.2 million to complete the necessary repair work to keep the pool from failing sometime in the next few years; it may last another five, but Engler said 10 or 15 is out of the question.
“After decades of water running through it, you know, we’ve learned a thing or two about plumbing over that amount of time,” Engler said. “So that’s going to have to be mitigated sooner than later because, one of these days, it’s just going to give and that (would) be terrible.”
The pool is a major community resource, not only for Lebanon’s population of 20,000, but for the surrounding areas as well; Engler knows this as well as anyone could. She grew up swimming in the same pool, joining the swim team at 8 years old.
Engler said the repair needs are a “domino effect” that all need to be done at once; the pool has also settled over the years too and is no longer level in the ground, leaving the gutter system unable to skim the water adequately.
“When nobody’s in the pool, at least about two-thirds of my entire gutter system is bone dry,” Engler explained. “So I’m only skimming in about a third of my gutters. So, you know, all of our repairs are all interconnected.”
In 2019 and 2020, Engler hoped to seek a bond in partnership with the school district, which they work with regularly to provide high schoolers with sports and physical education classes, but it didn’t lead anywhere. They did, however, look into a company that specializes in rehabilitating old pools with vinyl liners and pool flooring, and could install new gutters and flooring throughout the facility.
Engler said the current fundraising is time sensitive; the necessary funds are more than the pool district’s annual operating costs and, between inflation and other recurring costs, by the time they’re able to save $1.2 million, they’ll likely need $2 million.
“It’s like you’re always kind of trying to play that catch-up game,” Engler said. “Our board has looked at all the different options, and we try to go after grant money when we can, we try to be as fiscally responsible as possible [and] I think we do a good job of that.”
Engler has worked alongside Office Manager and Program Administrator Jill Smith for some 19 years now and said Smith is her “right hand.” Smith oversees scheduling and curriculums for the various offered lessons and exercise classes.
The LCP provides classes in aquatic yoga, aqua jogging and aerobics, and has at least three warm water classes per day. There will be swim team tryouts in September, open to most age groups; the team meets at least once per month.
All third graders in Lebanon are also offered two weeks of free lessons, and the pool sees patrons come in from nursing homes, veterans’ homes, and assisted living facilities like The Oaks. The LCP can even bill Medicare Advantage and Oregon Health Plan.
“[Some of our patrons are] senior citizens using this pool for rehabilitation of injuries or joint replacements,” Engler said. “Their doctor tells them they need to do something to get more mobile or to lubricate those joints and so you know, we have a huge usership with the elderly.”
Engler said they may seek a capital project bond in the future, but there’s reluctance thanks to the failure of the previous bond and the state of the economy. They ask people to donate, and all the donations so far are appreciated, but it’s an uphill battle.
So far they’ve received several larger donations, according to Engler, such as $25,000 from ENTEK, among others. They also held a fundraiser in May where people could water jog and swim laps, which brought in $15,000 – more than double what they’d expected.
All donations to the pool fund are tax deductible and, Engler said, they will write letters with the pool’s tax information so it can be claimed as a deduction. She also hopes to hold more fundraising events in the fall, and likely will have another Splash for Cash next May.