Bill Childress, a STOP and Swim volunteer, stands in front of the Veteran's Memorial Pearl Street Pool on Thursday afternoon in Centralia. Local nonprofit, STOP and Swim, along with the city of Centralia hope to create a brand new pool complex equipped with playground equipment and a splash pad.
The grassroots nonprofit STOP and Swim and the city of Centralia do not only just want to open the Pearl Street Pool next year. The partners hope to create a brand new pool complex equipped with playground equipment and a splash pad.
“We are putting together general plans to refit the whole pool environment,” Bill Childress, a STOP and Swim volunteer, said.
Childress, a retired general contractor, reached out to two Olympia-based architects who are initially volunteering their time to design ideas for the pool grounds.
Architects Jeffrey Glander and M.S. James are working with STOP and Swim and the city to design plans that would rebuild the pool building and add various attractions.
Conceptual designs for the pool complex are not yet finished, but should be ready early next year, according to STOP and Swim.
“We have quite a few plans to make it nicer around the pool,” STOP and Swim volunteer Phoebe Slusher said. “We did not want to just put a bandage on it. We want it to last.”
Slusher said the volunteers want to have a plan in place with an estimated cost early next year before starting a fundraising push. The design plan would have to be approved by STOP and Swim and the city council before moving forward with fundraising and construction, Slusher said.
“There has been a lot of people offering to donate but want to make sure we will be there,” Slusher said. “We just have to make sure we have the plans in order.”
STOP and Swim is already working on a fundraising plan similar to what the city of Chehalis and the Chehalis Foundation used to restore the Chehalis Outdoor Pool.
Chehalis and the Chehalis Foundation raised $2 million to completely renovate the outdoor pool.
STOP and Swim is seeking larger funding sources from agencies such as the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program and Land and Water Conservation Fund, the nonprofit said.
Childress said the nonprofit is coordinating with Centralia College and its alternate energy program to use solar energy at the outdoor pool.
“(Solar energy) is an element of it that can help us reduce the cost of operating, and the college has a department that focuses on alternate energy,” Childress said. “There is a lot of enthusiasm about it.”
With enough fundraising and support, Childress said, the pool area could become much more modern and energy efficient while still acting as a downtown landmark and tribute to veterans.
“It’s been a wonderful facility, but it’s time to update it,” Childress said.
