‘A series of frustrations’: Bellefonte still won’t have a community pool this year — or next

With many area pools opening around Memorial Day weekend, pool-goers may be wondering about the Kepler Community Pool in Bellefonte, which last operated in 2020 and has had discussion swirling about possible renovations ever since.

Though a plan for a fully-renovated pool is still in the works, fundraising has been a challenge for the Nittany Valley Joint Recreation Authority, an all-volunteer group chartered to organize the pool renovations, with two representatives from each of the four member municipalities of Bellefonte Borough and Benner, Spring and Walker townships.

“There’s more to it than ‘we want to get money and renovate the pool,’” said John Tooker, treasurer and Bellefonte Borough representative of the NVJRA. “That would’ve been a nice path to follow.”

Fundraising efforts began in late 2017, when the NJVRA applied for and received a community partnership grant from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) in the amount of $337,800, according to Cindy Kunes, a representative of NVJRA for Walker Township. At the same time, NJVRA had secured a dollar-for-dollar match from each of the member municipalities for a total budget of about $700,000.

NJVRA put the construction job out to bid, and the bids came back three to four times the $700,000 budget. Then, the pandemic hit, and supply chain issues abounded, causing further price increases, according to Tooker and Kunes.

As a result, NVJRA could not accept any of the bids, and it was necessary to continue to seek additional resources. DCNR advised the NVJRA that in order to qualify for additional funding from the same funding source, it was necessary to relinquish the $337,800 DCNR grant, so they did.

“Taking that money out of the pot exposed us to other issues, as some of the money we had was going to match that money,” Tooker said. “It just turned into a series of dominos that started to fall, and then we had to redouble our efforts and start the grant process again. It was not any egregious mismanagement or anything like that, just a series of situations that are understandable on their own, but when you string them together, you say, ‘oh ... five years have gone by.’”

Then, NVJRA applied for and were notified that they received a $1.2 million grant, as reported by the Centre Daily Times and elsewhere in September 2022. That money never came to fruition, Kunes said.

Tooker said it was due to a miscommunication: “It was a series of frustrations,” he said.

Kepler Pool could open in 2026

NVJRA recently filed an application for a DCNR Community Partnership Program grant, for which they requested $1.475 million, according to Kunes. If they receive the grant, NVJRA will match it with funds secured from municipalities, other grants and $35,000 in community donations.

If they are awarded the DCNR grant, the $1.475 million and matching funds will pay for the first phase of the project, budgeted at $2.9 million. Phase one includes the main pool and pool systems such as pumps, filters, chemical control and a leveler, as well as deck and safety equipment, concrete, and plumbing and electrical, Kunes said. The pool will be able to open to patrons after the first phase is completed.

Budgeted at $1.6 million, phase two includes a children’s wading pool, splash pad and additional amenities. NVJRA is actively seeking funds for that phase, Kunes said.

The amenities included in phase two were added to the plans, Tooker said, in the hope that the reopened Kepler Pool would be a new asset for a growing community.

“There was less enthusiasm to have the same thing reopened,” Tooker said. “When the State College pools reopened a few years ago now with bells and whistles, there was a little bit of neighborhood envy, like holy cow, that’s beautiful — let’s have something nice like that in our community. So there was a strong sentiment among board members that we didn’t just want to renovate and do the bare minimum, we wanted to improve the facility.”

Previous grants funded the design work done by State College-based engineering firm PennTerra Engineering Inc., which have been approved by code. PennTerra did not respond to requests for comment on the project.

“We are very optimistic about the DCNR grant,” Kunes said. “We had folks look at our narrative, who have said we have a solid application, though we cannot estimate or anticipate what the decision is going to be. We can’t spend a nickel until we have the funds fully secured.”

The final round of review for the DCNR grant will not take place until fall 2025. If the grant is awarded, the project would go out for bid in late 2025 or early 2026 with construction planned for late winter through spring 2026, Kunes said.

“With this funding source and this timeline, we project that the pool could be open by mid- to late-summer 2026,” Kunes said. “We appreciate the patience of the public as we have worked tirelessly to secure funding for the project.”

Tooker said that initially, NJVRA members were a sounding board for the YMCA, who under former YMCA CEO Howard Long, spearheaded the Kepler Pool project for several years. When Long moved away in 2017, the project fell solely to the NJVRA.

“All of us have full-time jobs; those of us doing this have no expertise in this realm,” he said. “We are community volunteers in every sense of the word, and for whatever reason, we asked or were asked to be on the board.”

The board also was dealing with vacancies: for a while, Tooker said, the eight-member board was stuck at five. Currently, seven slots are filled with one vacancy.

For technical assistance with grant-writing, NJVRA recently contracted with Delta Consulting Group.

“It was a big step forward when we started contracting with Delta Development,” Tooker said. “There were some course corrections, and post-COVID, we are slowly learning with time and getting better, but it lends itself to a much longer process than anyone would’ve liked.”

Bellefonte feels the loss

Having access to an outdoor pool over the summer would make a difference for nine-year-old Evelynn Martin, who spoke at a recent Walker Township supervisor meeting in support of the pool.

Martin swims for the Bellefonte Stingrays — a YMCA of Centre County swim team that practices at the Bellefonte Y — but prefers to swim with the Welch Sharks swim team over the summer because the team practices outdoors at the Welch Pool in State College.

Matt Martin, Evelynn’s father, said that it’s common for Stringrays swimmers to join the State College-based swim teams over the summer, but the drive there and back is not feasible for many working parents.

“Having the pool local, having it close, having it done, would be a great situation for the community,” Matt Martin said. “The new pool would allow us to host meets and help the team grow.”

YMCA of Centre County cut the Bellefonte Stingrays swim team last year, sparking outrage from the community. Since then, a new head coach, Carolyn Lee, was hired and is listed on the YMCA’s website.

Centre County YMCA CEO Scott Mitchell would not clarify when Lee was hired or how long the swim team was disbanded. Lee and YMCA Aquatics Director Kristin Erb did not respond to a request for comment.

Jim Pringle, a parent of a swimmer on the Bellefonte Area School District team, expressed frustration that BASD does not have a pool in the schools and has no intention of putting one in the new elementary school.

“It would be done in State College if they built a new school,” Pringle said. “For some reason here in Bellefonte, it’s sort of a poverty mentality. It’s really weird: while it would be the natural thing to do in State College, it is not natural thing to do here for the youth. It’s probably due to the tax base somewhat, but it’s a mindset too — it’s gotta be.”

Pringle mentioned the success of the BASD swim teams in recent years, which he attributed to the Kepler Pool being open back when young swimmers were first being introduced to the sport.

“Not having a pool hurts the future of swimming in Bellefonte badly,” Pringle said. “That was a run of successful years we won’t see for a while because we don’t have the infrastructure to support growth and development (of the swimmers).”