Reading’s refurbished Schlegel Park Pool will reopen Saturday.
Closed the past two summers, the city-owned-and-operated pool underwent a $1.4 million renovation.
It was completely resurfaced and all mechanicals, including its pumping and drainage systems, were replaced.
“The pool was totally rebuilt,” said Cindy Castner, Reading’s downtown coordinator.
The project was the last Castner oversaw in her former position as city property manager.
It, like the City Park playground project, was near and dear to her heart, she said.
Many happy girlhood summer days were spent splashing and playing at Schlegel Park Pool, Castner said.
Though first proposed by the city’s health officer in 1957, the public pool was not built until 1968.
At 54 years old, it was simply worn out, Castner said, but the death knell sounded a few years ago when its systems were damaged by flooding and mud.
Castner said the pool was built in a flood plain, but new trenching should alleviate the problem.
Heavy rains were a problem for the pool from the start, according to an article by Brian C. Engelhardt in the fall 2009 issue of The Historical Review of Berks County.
Engelhardt of Cumru Township, a retired attorney and member of the Berks History Center’s board of trustees, based the story on interviews with former recreation department supervisor Robert T. Duddy.
Duddy, who retired in 1977 after a nearly four-decade career with the department, directed the pool’s construction in 1968.
A number of issues arose after it was built, he told Engelhardt.
One of them was mudslides after heavy rains.
The location of the children’s locker rooms at the deep end of the new pool invited accidents, Duddy recalled.
That problem was solved by erecting barriers around that end.
He also remembered being frustrated by the many keys for the pool building’s various doors, Engelhardt wrote.
“We had 30 doors and 15 different keys instead of one master,” Duddy told him.
Then there was the problem of teens climbing over the fence and sneaking into the pool at night.
Duddy found a solution with then-manager Jimmy Carpousis.
Carpousis taught science at Reading High School and kept a big black snake in an aquarium in the classroom, Duddy told Engelhardt. The teacher moved the aquarium and the snake to the pool office for the summer.
“He got the word out that the snake needed exercise, so he was going to put it in the pool at night,” Duddy said. “We had no problems with anyone sneaking in after that.”
Public controversy arose when Duddy refused to allow the new Olympic-size pool to be used for competitive swim meets with private pools, Engelhardt said. The rec supervisor feared the pool would be unavailable for public use on meet nights.
“The swim meets would have tied up the pool for whole evenings,” Duddy said. “It was built for the kids and for the people, and they wouldn’t have been able to use it.”
A child when the pool opened, Castner was unaware of any difficulties or controversies, though her father, Joseph Kuzminski — a four-term city councilman and mayor from 1976 to 1980 — and his fellow council members backed up Duddy’s ban on swim meets.
Castner just remembers the fun, and one memory stands out.
“I was the first kid to jump in the pool when it opened,” she said. “My dad said, ‘They’re going to count 1, 2, 3. Jump in when they say 2.’ ”
An obedient Castner did.
Source: Berkshire mont
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