BY Lansing State Journal,

If you have been down Greyhound Drive any time after school was out last summer, you can see the construction area, fencing and wood boards on the pool building and in the Middle School parking lot. The swimming pool is the last of our major construction projects from our bond that Eaton Rapids community members graciously passed a few years ago.

While we considered renovating the pool as well as changing the number of lanes from six to eight, we settled on building a brand new six-lane pool. When the pool was operational last spring, water disappeared in one day when our pump was not working. So, we thought it made sense to completely rebuild the infrastructure as well as the pool area. When compared to our pool estimates, the cost of the new pool is over $1 million more than the $1 million originally budgeted for the renovation.

At one point this fall, you could go into the pool area and see nothing but dirt; it looked more like we were starting to dig a big basement where our old pool area was once located.

There have been two structural challenges that were not anticipated — plumbing lines were not where we thought and there are some problems with a portion of the roof as well as where the walls meet the roof. In spite of these glitches, we are on schedule with our work with only the bleachers and the structural walls remaining from the original pool.

We have new locker rooms for men and women plus family changing rooms.

We will have all new electrical, plumbing, water heating, as well as the pool and the deck. The colors being used are cream, red, navy blue and green. If you remember the rusty metal lockers, you will be impressed with the hard-coated plastic ones in their place. We have a new pump and heating system for the pool as well.

If you calculate the time used for school swim lessons in grades 5-8 and the time used by our high school competitive swim teams, the pool is tied up about 15% of the time. While we will not use the pool for the graveyard shift, there is a lot of time available for community use of the pool.

ERPS is interviewing for the pool coordinator position as we get ready for our grand re-opening of the pool in early summer. We also will have a head lifeguard plus high school and college students as lifeguards and class instructors. As early as June, we hope to have classes and open swim periods. And if we get good and lucky, we will have a couple of summer programs that kids can dive into!

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