Bellefonte’s only public swimming pool has remained closed since September 2020 due to problems with the mechanicals and the structure. Thanks to the efforts of two volunteer organizations and community support, Kepler Pool is expected to reopen during the summer of 2024.
“With Kepler, nothing significant had been done since it was built in 1971,” said Cindy Kunes, the secretary for the Nittany Valley Joint Recreation Authority, which owns and manages the pool. “The repairs that have been needed since that time have really been just Band-Aid approaches.
“What we realized prior to 2018 was the mechanicals needed to be rebuilt totally,” she said. “The pool was leaking water. There was always something that needed to be repaired.”
Kunes said the Nittany Valley Joint Recreation Authority was formed in 2013 as an all-volunteer organization to focus on recreational purposes in Bellefonte Borough, Spring Township, Benner Township and Walker Township. Since its establishment, the authority has focused primarily on Kepler Pool.
The authority applied for its first matching grant from the DCNR in 2018, she said. The $334,800 grant was secured in 2019. Local governments provided the matching funds.
“We were working through the design phase in 2020; then COVID hit and things stopped. Our design wasn’t approved until 2021,” she said. “In the meantime, we had to close the pool in 2020 due to these mechanical issues that we were experiencing, and upon the recommendation of a wall inspection by the design company, for safety reasons.
“As we put it out for bid in December 2021, the bids that we got back far exceeded the initial budget that we had for the pool. This was several years later. COVID happened in between and costs rose. The bids were coming in three times what the allocated budget was on the DCNR grant,” she said.
“PennTerra Engineering is our design company. We’re also partnering with Clearwater Swimming Pools,” Kunes said. “We’re using guidance from them to implement this renovation. That doesn’t mean they will be doing the construction. They’re more on the design phase of things. We’re expecting the final design in several weeks.”
She said the authority will need to submit the final design to the state for approval since Pennsylvania state grants have been a major source of funding. After approval, the authority will put the project out to bid in phases.
Kunes said the first DCNR grant focused on the pool. The second DCNR grant, received in 2022, was for $1,310,214. It included amenities to attract more families — bath house improvements, sun shades and a children’s wading pool with play features.
“The total project cost so far is 3.5 million dollars and we have secured a little over 2.7 million through lots of different funding sources,” Kunes said. “We’ve received a total of six grants.”
Two banks donated to the pool project and were able to receive tax credits through a Neighborhood Assistance Grant through the PA Department of Community and Economic Development, Kunes said.
“We are working with another volunteer organization, Nittany Valley Recreation Inc., that’s a fundraising partner for Kepler Pool. They are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.”
She said some funding sources, including foundations, require the applicant to be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which allows large donations to be tax-deductible.
Kunes said they hope the project will go out for bid in late summer and construction can begin in the late fall so the pool could be open for a partial season in the summer of 2024. “We have enough funding to rebuild the pool, do a few amenities and be well on our way to this 3.5-million-dollar project.”
“The Bellefonte Branch of the Centre County YMCA has been our managing partner for the pool, so they have been managing it on a day-to-day basis for many years,” she said.
“The pool has, over the years, been heavily used by swim teams and daycare centers and such, including the YMCA team. So not having it there for a couple of years has been a hardship. They’ve had to go other places or reduce their programming,” she said. “The YMCA used it as part of their summer program for childcare program and I believe Wee Wisdom Daycare used it as part of their summer programming.”
Mike Musser is president of the Nittany Valley Recreation Inc., and co-chair of Nittany Vally Joint Recreation Authority.
Musser said, “We started the nonprofit so that we had a means of getting donations that people that did it could use as a tax credit. We’re about a year old. We haven’t gone full force on the fundraising and campaigning. We’ve been really focusing on making sure that we can get some progress on actually doing the pool. We think that once we do that it will be a catalyst for people who’d like to commit and provide donations. ‘What are you doing? We’re doing a lot of paperwork right now.’
“This week we’ll be meeting with the designers and the engineers and we have one more meeting with them and then we can forward the current design to DCNR for review and approval. And at that point it can go back out to bid again.”
“The pool is an integral piece of the community fabric, in my opinion,” he said. “I’m not a swimmer but I do appreciate the value in it and what it does for children.
Musser said his daughter was on the YMCA swim team.
“For the last two years, they went to Snow Shoe for workouts for the Y team. The Y team had used Kepler for practice in the summer,” he said.
Kunes said both the authority and NVRI welcome and encourage volunteers who want to assist with any of these efforts. “We need volunteers to assist with fundraising efforts, and we have a couple vacancies on the authority.”
Musser said, “We’re always looking for volunteers, anybody who wants to give of their time to a project to help better the community. We’re not necessarily looking for someone with expertise. We’re just looking for someone to assist, that can help, that has ideas.
For more information about serving as a member of the authority, contact [email protected]. To help with fundraising efforts for Kepler Pool or to donate, email [email protected]. Online donations are welcomed at BellefontePool.org.
