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BELLEFONTE, Pa. (WTAJ) — A popular Centre County pool could be making a big splash in the community once again and that day might be sooner rather than later.
The Kepler Pool in Bellefonte hasn’t set a reopening date since it first closed in 2020, but new funding from the county commissioners could change that.
The Nittany Valley Joint Recreation Authority has been working to secure funding to reopen the pool.
“They have a number of state grants, but you have to match,” Commissioner Mark Higgins said. “They have found a broad variety of potential and actual grant matching groups but they’re $110,000 short.”
$110,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding was approved by the county commissioners at their latest meeting. Higgins said residents working on the project have been able to raise a matching amount of funding.
“The members of the Nittany Valley Joint Recreation Authority and the nonprofit Nittany Valley Recreation, Inc. would like to express our sincere appreciation to the Centre County Commissioners for their unwavering support and commitment to Kepler Pool over the last few years,” NVJRA Chairman Christopher Haak said. “Their dedication to ensuring the success and longevity of this vital community resource has not gone unnoticed, and their recent financial commitment of $110,000 is a testament to their ongoing commitment.”
The money will go towards structural repairs, installing a children’s pool and improvements to ADA access.
Without the pool, the community is facing some missing holes that the commissioners say need to be filled.
“As soon as CRPR opens up their registration, it fills immediately,” Commissioner Amber Concepcion said. “The Y, there’s not enough capacity there to meet the demand and when kids don’t have an opportunity for swim lessons, they are at a much higher risk of drowning.”
Since the time the pool has been closed, Higgins said the number of children who haven’t had access to the pool has only gone up.
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“We now have three or four years’ worth of children that have not been taught how to swim,” Higgins said. “So we’re potentially talking hundreds of children here.”
Haas said the funding will help ensure that the pool reopens in the near future and remains a safe, accessible and enjoyable place for families and individuals of all ages to gather and swim for years to come.
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