People swim and play at SEBCO Pool at Laura J. Doerr Memorial Park in Jefferson Township. Butler Eagle file photo
JEFFERSON TWP — SEBCO Pool has been closed for the season since Labor Day weekend, but Jefferson Township officials are making plans for its long-term future.
At a special meeting Tuesday, Nov. 28, Jefferson Township supervisors voted to apply for a Local Share Account grant worth $250,000. Proceeds from this grant, if approved, would go to the renovation of the community pool, which serves swimmers in the southeastern part of Butler County during the summer months.
The special meeting was necessary, as an official resolution needed passed to be included in the grant application, which is due on Thursday, Nov. 30.
According to township Supervisor L. John Cypher, the renovation project is still in its preliminary stages and nothing has gone out to bid yet. However, the project’s cost was previously estimated to be around $1.1 million. The SEBCO Pool Association has been soliciting donations to help offset the costs.
“Step one, it has to be determined what the projected costs would be,” Cypher said. “Step two is exactly what is going to be renovated. Then the next step is getting the engineering work done to put you in a position to bid. Then the next step is the bidding process.”
Cypher could not give a timetable for when the renovation could be finished, other than “sometime in the future.”
The township in February was approved for a grant of $555,000 for the renovation project from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. It was a one-to-one matching grant, meaning the township had to make sure it could put forward the same amount of funds to receive the grant.
According to township manager Leo J. Rosenbauer III, the grant, which the township began applying for Tuesday, is not a matching grant. Rosenbauer said the township has also applied for a grant from the Greenways, Trails and Recreation Program of the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development.
Rosenbauer said the township has not heard back from the state on the second grant, which is worth $250,000.
