By Red Lodge City Pool Staff
We are so excited to be launching a fundraising campaign to ensure that a new city pool is built in Red Lodge. The city appointed a 5-member Pool Committee in October of 2020 to help raise these funds with the intent of reducing the overall burden of the cost of such a large project on the city budget.
The pool is such an important resource for our community for so many reasons.
Drowning is the leading cause of accidental death for children ages 1-4 and the second leading cause of death for ages 5-9. Without a city pool that has qualified teachers and lifeguards, most of our children have no safe place where they can learn to swim.
The pool is also a fabulous resource for all age groups and up to 1000 people visited the pool every month in the summer.
Many adults love to swim laps, participate in water aerobic lessons and even the high school has used the pool for training athletes. Families gather there and meet other families (in non-COVID times) and that creates wonderful community bonds.
When it was evident that the old pool was beyond repair, the city canvased the community and found that the majority of people wanted their children to be able to walk or ride their bikes to the pool. Therefore, the new pool, designed by Interstate Engineering, will be in the existing location with a new L-Shaped design and state of the art mechanical equipment.
There will be a beach entry (otherwise known as a zero-entry) which will accommodate children and be ADA compliant. Bids have gone out for this phase, Phase I, of construction. Work will begin in April 2021 and be completed by June of 2022. The cost of Phase I is $1.696 million.
With robust fundraising, the city will also be able to commit to authorize Phase II which will include amenities such as a splash deck, slide, tower slide and renovation of the pool house.
To ensure sufficient operation and maintenance cost for the pool, a pool endowment of $1 million needs to be obtained. Our goal is to raise $3 million to cover these costs. All donations made to the city pool will go into a bank account specifically for the pool that has been created by the Red Lodge Area Community Foundation.
Funds may only be released with the Pool Committee’s approval as construction invoices are presented.
Pool Committee Fundraising Campaign While both the city and the City Pool Committee are applying for grants, your financial support is critical. Please consider donating in one of the following ways:
Donate online: https://secure.etransfer.com/RLACF/CityPoolFund.cfm
Donate by check: make checks payable to: RLACF City Pool Fund Send checks to RLACF, 122 Hauser Ave. S / PO Box 1871 Red Lodge, Montana 59068.
Donate by credit card: https://secure.etransfer.com/RLACF/CityPoolFund.cfm
Or call the Community Foundation, 406-446-2820.
Donate by gifting securities: Call or email Judith Gregory ~ 406-446-1669 judithgreg2000@yahoo.com.
THANK YOU!