An aging Centre County pool is closed. Could a new recreation authority save it?

With Penns Valley’s only public pool closed this summer for extensive repairs, the Millheim Borough Council held a public hearing Tuesday to discuss a possible new arrangement for ownership and maintenance of the aging pool.

The Millheim Pool, located in the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Park at 120 Park Entrance Road, opened in 1970 and is owned by the Millheim Lions Club and operated by a small group of volunteers from the Penns Valley Parks and Recreation Association. In June, the Lions Club offered to sell the pool to the borough for $1, with the goal of getting the borough’s help with the extensive renovation project.

While the borough has yet to make a decision on the offer — and likely won’t until at least August — the possible sale could be followed up by the creation of a Penns Valley Joint Recreation Authority. The new entity would operate the pool similarly to how the Centre Region Parks & Recreation Authority operates the two public pools in the State College area.

According to council members Robert Zeigler and Katie Blume, the joint authority would be comprised of members from each Penns Valley municipality, including Gregg, Haines, Miles, Penn and Potter townships, and Centre Hall and Millheim boroughs.

“One of the things that I learned about the pool through the Lions Club is that about only 35% of the pool’s usage comes from Millheim,” Blume said at the public hearing. “That’s what’s sort of driving the joint municipal aspect of this all.”

Of the three municipalities that have been reached out to so far — Haines, Miles and Penn townships — Zeigler said that Haines and Miles have expressed interest in forming the authority, with Penn not yet answering.

The authority would exist separately from the Penns Valley Parks & Recreation Association.

Even though the creation of the authority is still only an idea, if it is eventually formed, it could be used to tackle a wider range of recreation issues at parks across the Penns Valley. But the first priority would be the pool’s lengthy list of issues.

“There’s more potential with this joint authority than just the pool — not that the pool isn’t a big to-do, and that it should maybe be the main goal for the first five, 10 years of the authority,” councilman Nickelaus Engle said. “But I just think there’s a lot of other potential, even if it is just connecting people that want to do similar things.”

Some of the pool’s current needs include replacing its internal plumbing, installing a new, low-maintenance liner, updating the mechanical room, bathhouse and concession stand, pouring new concrete around the pool when the internal issues are fixed and making some smaller upgrades along the way.

The total cost of all repairs is not yet known, although the borough anticipates a new pool liner costing at least $100,000.

While the list of repairs is long, Penns Valley Parks & Recreation Association President Michelle Johnson said at the meeting that samples taken at the pool earlier this summer indicate that its 50-year-old core is in “really good” condition, saving the borough from having to excavate into the pool further.

About six people attended Tuesday’s public hearing, including Millheim resident Jerry Abbott, who asked if the borough’s taxpayers would have to foot the bill for the pool’s repairs. Council members said that’s not expected.

Blume said that if the authority is formed, the renovations would be paid for through a combination of grants, municipal in-kind work and financial contributions, local donations and authority-held fundraising events.

“Financially, I don’t residents should be worried about that,” Engle said. “I think the first thing that would happen is the pool just not opening again before we unreasonably rush it to try and be open, and then all of a sudden everyone in the borough has to pay $500 a year just to keep it barely open. I don’t envision that ever happening.”

In the future, if the borough is in ownership of the pool and deems it to be beyond repair, the council hopes to remain in possession of the property to make some park upgrades. But they’re hoping that a permanent end to the pool never arrives.

“Our one main goal should be opening up the pool, and if we’re going to do that, we do want to give it our our best shot,” Engle said. “We really do care about it, and I haven’t met anyone that doesn’t care about it, which is the whole point.”

Moving forward, no large upgrades to the pool will be done this summer, but Johnson said that some smaller patchwork to the pool’s lining where core samples were taken will be completed, so that it can at least hold water.

While a timeline for repairs and the possible formation of the joint authority remains to be seen, updates on the renovation process will be shared at future Millheim Borough Council meetings, which take place at 7 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month.

Another public hearing will also be held to discuss the pool from 8:30-9:30 a.m., Friday, July 18 at the borough building.