The Committee for the Water Complex at Shaw Park formed with hopes to bring back the Beaver Pool
If you have a conversation with a longtime Beaver resident, odds are they’ll have stories from spending summer days at the Beaver Pool. This piece of our community has stood in its location next to the high school since the 1940s.
As many residents may have heard, the Beaver Pool closed at the end of the 2019 season and will not be reopening in its current condition.
The pool is facing severe structural problems that have left it unable to operate safely without drastic changes, though it is important to note that the pool was always safe for residents to use through its operation until the end of the 2019 season.
The Borough worked very hard to conduct research to ensure that the closure of the pool was the best decision as well as to get a better idea of what options exist moving forward.
The first step was to identify the severity of the situation and the financial investment it would take to rebuild the pool. This past spring, the Borough had the land surveyed and worked with an architecture firm to create designs for a new pool.
The structural issues that face the pool have to do with the concrete within it. The Beaver Pool has a unique design in that most of its walls are exposed above ground, even though it’s an inground pool. The exposed walls have nothing behind them to offer additional support.
The rebar inside of the concrete is decaying and the concrete has been patched so many times that there is not any remaining parent material to patch to. The engineers that evaluated it determined it was too dangerous to continue operating, which was what finalized the decision to close the pool.
To rebuild the Beaver Pool as well as surrounding improvements to Shaw Park is an estimated $4-6 million dollar project based on the current designs. Final cost would be determined after a bidding process conducted by the borough. If insufficient funds are raised, there are smaller improvements that can be undertaken such as pool demolition and the installation of a splash pad in Shaw Park. The committee would continue to look for ways to fund the pool project.
A new parking lot was an important piece of the pool conversation.
When the pool was in operation, residents and visitors parked in the lot nearby the tennis courts, as well as long the nearby residential streets which could become an inconvenience to our residents who live on 6th and 7th street. By providing a space for parking designated for the pool, this would offer convenience for pool visitors as well as our residents who live nearby.
The pool would remain in its same location, but a new entrance would be created in a roundabout fashion for drop off. The roundabout would be located off the main road, offering a much safer option for residents.
The project is currently at a standstill and that’s because of funding.
A committee has been formed to further pool discussions and collect donations. The committee, called the Committee for the Water Complex at Shaw Park (WCSP), is made up of two council members and five area residents.
When the Beaver Pool was built in the 1940s, the project was fully funded by the federal government. The project itself came to zero cost for the Borough after completion. The cost of the pool would have been too large for the Borough to afford.
The mission of the WCSP is to raise enough money that a pool can be built without tax money. The hope is for the money to be raised not only to build the pool, but to sustain the maintenance after it’s built.
Raising the money to complete this project will take the help of many people in the community and beyond.
Donations to support the rebuilding of the Beaver Pool can be made out to the “Beaver County Foundation” with a notation of “Water Complex at Shaw Park (WCSP).”
Please mail donations to:
PO Box #569, Beaver, PA 15009
All donations will be tax deductible. A GoFundMe page will also be started in the near future.
The committee kindly asks that residents who have connections to people on the county, state, or federal level reach out to them about financial assistance that could be granted to the pool.
There will come a time in the future where the Borough reevaluates the current situation of the pool about what will come next. The current plan is to wait the next few years to see what happens with the finances before reevaluating the decision.
The best way to get updates about the pool project is to check the website (which is now under construction) at www.beaverareapool.com or read meeting minutes. Look for the WCSP committee table set up in front of Bovard Anderson on Garrison Days on Saturday, Sept. 4. A contact email will be listed on the website for general questions to the committee.
The Committee for the Water Complex at Shaw Park Officers: Frank Grisafi, President; Sean Johnson, VP/Treasurer; Christi Ringer, Secretary
