Community input needed on future of Herrin’s Harrison Bruce Aquatic Center

HERRIN, Ill. (KBSI) – The future of Herrin Community Pool is uncertain, as officials say that major repairs are needed to keep the facility safe and operational. 

According to Bob Scillufo Herrin Park District President an inspection was done on the Harrison Bruce Aquatic Center, and it revealed several things that needed to be fixed, including the bottom floor. Scillufo shares that the pool was built in 1956 and has a sand floor which is uncommon, and repairs are costly.  

“We spent, $26,000 to get to the point where we are to fix the pool and roughly, we’re looking at another $100,000 just to repair it, to get it open and the park district is a tax base. We have a budget of a half million dollars for the entire year. We are tax a base thing, and we get about $380,000 of our revenue from property taxes.” says Scillufo. 

Scillufo shares that because they are tax based, they want the communities’ input on what they should do next.

Along with needed repairs, Scillufo states that the pool loses over $20,000 each year just being open, not including the growing cost of repairs.

There is another aquatic center located about 15 minutes from the one in Herrin, in Marion and Scillufo says that may contribute to why they receive less and less business each year.

“We’re going to lay out all the things that all the repairs that need to be done and ask so since we don’t have any funding, if the community wants to help get some funding. So, we have an idea of what, extent of fixes they want to do. The pool generally with the costs of wages and what we have brought in for the pool each year, we pay more in salaries than what we bring in” says Scillufo.

There will be a meeting held on October 8th at the Herrin Park office at 6:00 pm for all Herrin residents wanting to find out more details, discuss funding or shares concerns.