The dilapidated pool house, located at Butler Memorial Park, has been closed since 2004. Butler has been awarded a $102,000 state grant to demolish the Memorial Park pool and pool house. The site will be left as open space.

Butler has been awarded a $102,000 state grant to demolish the Memorial Park pool and pool house, which have been closed since 2004.

The Butler County Housing and Redevelopment Authority applied for the grant on behalf of the city in August 2020.

State Rep. Marci Mustello, R-11th, said the grant was awarded through the Commonwealth Finance Authority's Blight Remediation Program.

“The pool building, bathhouse/locker room, pump house and fenced-in area have been vacant, unused and have become hazards in recent years,” Mustello said. “While it is sad to see old, deteriorating structures go, this is an important part of the growth for the city. By removing the pool, it makes room for new development, which is the lifeblood of our community.”

The city is required to provide a $10,000 match or provide in-kind services as the match.

City Councilman Jeff Smith said the city has been working with the authority and Butler County Community Development Corporation (CDC) to obtain the grant.

The CDC covered the $7,000 cost of an environmental assessment that was required for the demolition to proceed.

“With the collaboration with the CDC and the county and Rep. Mustello and Sen. (Scott) Hutchinson, this project really is the culmination of really great cooperation and teamwork between different levels of government,” Jeff Smith said.

He said the site will be left as open space after demolition and restoration are complete in the fall.

Mayor Ben Smith said it is sad to see something demolished that so many people have fond memories of, but the facility can't be renovated, so it's time for a different use of the space.

The pool was a main attraction in the city when it opened in August 1950 and continued attracting big crowds through the 1980s, but attendance plummeted in the early 1990s.

After the pool closed, there was a grassroots effort led by teachers at Broad Street Elementary School to repair the pool's leaks and broken filtration system, and another local effort to convert the pool into a water spray park, but neither succeeded.