MARS — The Mars pool, a fixture for more than 50 years, has reached its end.

The pool’s board of directors has reluctantly decided that the facility’s sinking finances can no longer justify keeping the pool open.

The pool on Stanton Avenue Extension opened in 1962. It has cooled three generations of Mars residents over the years.

Nichole Fromlak, board treasurer, said day care, youth sports and the appearance of pools in housing plans are the main reasons the pool is no longer viable in Mars.

“There’s no interest anymore,” Fromlak said. “It’s a shame.”

She said board members sent out an e-mail in late August to members and potential members informing them that a lack of 2015 memberships would mean the end of the pool.

“We didn’t get much of a response,” Fromlak said.

She said the board members agreed among themselves that it was time to give up the ghost.

Fromlak said the pool board still owes $150,000 on a Mars Bank loan taken out in 2008 to build a multipurpose room, which was meant to attract members. She said the board has not made a payment on the loan in several months.

Also by August the board had gotten only 94 memberships when 150 are needed to remain solvent.

Fromlak said the board even wrote to television talk show host Ellen DeGeneres asking for help. Degeneres often gives financial help to people and groups in need on her daytime television show.

“We’re desperate,” Fromlak said.

She said the board has tried to raise money during the past year by holding Christmas in July, Pancakes by the Pool, a community yard sale, free swim for dads on Father’s Day and other events at the pool.

Fromlak said her family will pool hop this coming summer to choose a new place for swimming, but it won’t be the same.

“The kids are just beyond sad,” Fromlak said of the pool’s young members. “There are no words for how upset they are.”

She said the board will now meet with a lawyer to decide its next step, which could be dissolving the board and looking for a buyer for the 5-acre property.

“Maybe a builder will buy it, I don’t know,” Fromlak said. “It’s just a sad loss for the community. We had grandparents who came to the pool as kids bringing their grandchildren.”

One of the children who splashed in the pool during the summers in the 1960s and 1970s is Mars Mayor Gregg Hartung, whose son more recently worked as a lifeguard there.

“It’s sad to think there may not be a pool in Mars next year,” Hartung said. “On the other hand, I think we have got to continue to keep all options open to see if there is some way to reclaim it and be able to do something with it.”

Hartung said a recent lack of scorching summer temperatures, changing demographics and the inability for growth in the borough are the reasons the pool could not stay afloat.

“The biggest challenge is how not to strap residents with a tax increase and keep all the amenities,” Hartung said.

He noted Adams, Forward and Middlesex townships are seeing growth spurts while boroughs like Mars, Evans City and Callery are built-out and unable to mimic that growth.

“We have to find a creative way to fund things,” Hartung said. “I haven’t given up, but I’m not sure what it’s going to take (to keep the pool open).”

Mac McSwain, president of the pool board, said the pool likely will be offered for sale through a real estate company to give the public a chance to buy it.

He said the 70-foot-by-40-foot pool holds about 150,000 gallons of water.

“It’s very disappointing, but the memberships have gone downhill,” McSwain said.