The village pool opened in 1953 and it stayed in operation at the Sheldon Drive location for the next 50 years. It served an average of 125 swimmers a day and each summer instructors taught swimming lessons to upwards of 350 children and adults. In the Fall of 2003, the pool was closed permanently due to mechanical problems. Immediately a group of community residents organized and held a meeting at the United Ministry church. The Mayor of the Village of Delhi challenged the group to build a pool. A committee evolved, had a feasibility study prepared with a $5000. There was an impressive number of returns of the surveys indicating a 90% were interested in having a pool. The Pool Committee, under the direction of Bill Oles, one of the original fundraisers of the 1952 pool project, began to organize and plan how to make a community pool a reality. In 2004, using subcommittees and member's talents and expertise, the committee moved to find a suitable location for the pool, searched for a design engineer and conducted interviews for an experienced pool construction company. Through a series of fundraisers and grant writing, the committee has raised approximately $964,000 (as of March, 2016) in donations and pledges. The NYS Health Department has reviewed the engineering construction plans for the pool and given their initial thumbs up. Scott Clark of Clark Companies has agreed to be the general contractor and has donated $50,000 of in-kind services. The town of Delhi has written a letter of commitment to continue their previous contribution of approximately $21,000 toward annual maintenance and operation of the pool. Several local businesses, service clubs and private individuals have been generously supporting and contributing to our original goal of $894,000. In June of 2015, we put our design out to bid and both of the bids received came back in excess of $1,300,000.00, so both bids were rejected, forcing the Committee to start the process over. During the remainder of 2015, we worked to develop a new Request For Proposal (RFP) that would produce a new design that our limited budget could afford. In March, 2016 we selected Lakeside Engineering to complete a new design for the Delhi Pool. We hope to complete the new pool design and bid for construction process before the end of 2016. The WBRAC Committee continues to believe that history will repeat itself and that our area communities will have a swimming pool that provides the recreation and social hub that our residents deserve. It may take longer to raise the funds in these economically distressed times, but it will happen. The committee remains strong and committed to that goal.
