Lansford Borough Council is giving up on its swimming pool, and exploring prices on a new splash pad for summer recreation.

Council hopes to have a design ready early next year to apply for the next grant cycle to pay for the splash pad or spray park.

Members decided against a referendum and a feasibility study, which would tell council if the borough could repair the existing pool and be able to operate it moving forward.

Councilwoman Gwyneth Collevechio said she couldn’t see paying thousands for a feasibility study, which would likely tell the borough what it already knows – it probably can’t support a pool in the long run.

A feasibility study could cost between $25,000 and $30,000, and Council President Bruce Markovich said he got a recent quote of $50,000 to do a study from a firm.

Councilman Bill Chuma suggested going with a splash pad and keeping the existing baby pool, which they can get up and running.

“I think a pool is out of the question, because it’s going to cost too much money,” he said. “I don’t think we can afford to be able to run it, and it’s not going to be self-sufficient. It’s going to cost the borough more to run it.”

Chuma believed it would eat up tax dollars.

Councilman Martin Ditsky asked about possibly sizing down the pool again, as was done in the past, as an option. But Markovich said they have a $1 million estimate on the pool already.

Ditsky asked where the proposed splash pad would be placed, and Markovich said they’d probably fill in the pool and put the splash pad on the first half of the site.

Chuma believed they needed more distance between the baby pool and splash pad, because children would likely run between the two which could cause problems.

Resident Rose Mary Cannon asked if they considered making the pool smaller.

“How small do you want to make it? It’s small now,” Chuma replied, and Cannon agreed that it is smaller than it once was.

Chuma also pointed out that with a swimming pool, the borough would need to hire lifeguards, which have been harder to find, and then have problems with the pool chemicals.

Splash pads do not need lifeguards or chemicals to keep the water safe, a point raised at the last meeting.

The water company has also said it would no longer provide free water, Councilman John Turcmanovich said.

He also was unsure about the use of a borough pool, as he has seen low attendance at the Lehighton pool this summer and it’s a beautiful facility.

Turcmanovich also pointed out that one Lansford resident pays $50 a year to swim at the Tamaqua pool, and wondered how a family could afford those rates with two or three kids.

Collevechio pointed out that Tamaqua honors the old Lansford rates.

Resident Joe Gentis suggested reaching out to the neighboring communities to see if they would be interested in supporting the swimming pool – helping to pay for renovations or new pool, and possibly forming a commission to operate the pool.

Cannon said they tried that in the past, and there was no interest.

Collevechio said the borough just can’t afford the expense of a pool for such a short season.

“Believe me, I’m sad about it,” she said. “But you can’t justify having 10 weeks of swimming in a town that can’t support it, number one, and try to find a million dollars, number two, and then in a year or two … we’re stuck. We have a new pool and we can’t afford it. Now what are we going to do?”

The borough would then end up paying back the grant money, if the pool failed, Turcmanovich said.

Council then came to the conclusion that a splash was the way to move forward, and Collevechio said she’d like to see a really big splash pad.

Ditsky said they could also fix the baby pool, and Markovich said they already have estimates on the baby pool and someone donated money toward that repair.

Council would only be looking at the costs involved in the splash pad, which cost about $10,000 per feature in the water play area, Markovich said.