The Eastend Community Swimming Pool has received a much-needed boost in the form of a $5,000 grant from the Innovation Credit Union's Legacy Community Development Grant.
The funding comes as a welcome relief to the volunteer-run, nonprofit facility, which has been aiming to make repairs and improvements, explained Allison Zeigler, a member of the Eastend Community Swimming Pool Board.
“We've been trying to enhance the area behind our water slides in our small pool, so we've been working on getting the grass in a better situation so it can be a more usable space,” she elaborated. “Right now, we've got it dug up, it's dirt, and cement has been poured so that the kids and the users of the water slide can move from one side of the pool to the other side of the pool in a better, cleaner fashion than it had been in the past.”
While some of the work has already begun taking place, Zeigler noted that plans for the next couple of years include underground sprinklers, laying sod, and beautifying the area as a whole.
She acknowledged that as the facility is volunteer-run, it can be difficult to nail down a precise timeline for these types of projects.
“It's a volunteer board,” she stated. “They're all busy doing their own thing and running their own businesses at the same time as trying to keep our facility going. So, timeline is always tricky, but we're hoping for sure within the next year or so. We're hoping to try and do some work after summer ends in the fall and it's always dependent on weather as well.”
Being a nonprofit facility, the swimming pool faces financial challenges each year to maintain its operations and ensure a safe and enjoyable environment for visitors, making funding such as this essential.
“It's so key to our town, it's such a drawing card,” Zeigler explained. “It draws people in to our stay at our campground, come to the pool, go to our golf course and golf, and tour around the art facilities in our town, so, we believe that it's very key. Getting grants like this that can help keep it competitive and a place that people want to come is just absolutely important to us every year.”