Jan 25, 2024 By Jon Andreassi 3 min read

For the past several years Carmichaels Pool has struggled with structural problems that have disrupted operations, and will remain closed for the 2024 season as officials work to upgrade the pool.

Greene County Director of Recreation Bret Moore said leaks in the pool frequently delayed the daily opening or sent patrons home early.

“We’ve been struggling. I took over in 2020, and we’ve been having issues every summer,” Moore said Wednesday. “We knew eventually we were going to have to do this, and this just seemed like the time to do it.”

County officials and the Cumberland Township supervisors requested an independent evaluation of the pool after it lost a significant amount of water last summer, according to a press release from the department of recreation.

That evaluation revealed more significant issues under the surface.

“They saw significant damage to the pipes under the pool. We were hoping for an easier fix. It can’t be patchworked. It’s going to need to be a major overhaul,” Moore said.

He explained that the pipes running beneath the pool are cast-iron and have been there since about 1977.

“We’ve got some cracks in the bottom of the pool. There are some microcracks, which we’ve tried to seal each year. The seams on the side of the pool will need to be replaced. The pipes underneath the deep end are significantly degraded,” Moore said.

It is unclear how much the project will cost.

“We’ve had a couple estimates, but we don’t have anything official at this time. We just have ballpark figures. We’re probably not ready to discuss that yet,” Moore said.

The county aims to have the project completed over the course of the summer, but no concrete timeline for repairs has been determined.

“We’re in the process of getting consultation on that. We hope that it is completed this summer, but we won’t know until we get the actual contractors in there to give us estimates,” Moore said.

While Carmichaels Pool is closed, the Greene County Recreation Department will continue to operate Greene County Water Park in Waynesburg and Mon View Pool in Greensboro. The state also operates a pool at Ryerson Station State Park.

Moore notes that the repairs are long overdue, and will make the pool safer for guests.

“The pool has been there for almost 50 years. The traditional life of a pool is 25 to 30 years. It has definitely served its purpose,” Moore said. “It’s the nature of the beast. We’ve got to upgrade these things.”