Bethel
The Pleasant Street site’s new pool house, part of a Bethel Recreation Committee master plan first developed prior to Tropical Storm Irene, should be ready for use within a week or two of the opening of the pool for the season, scheduled for June 25.
The 2,880-square-foot structure replaces a much smaller pool house that had served the facility since the 1970s, Bethel Town Manager Keith Arlund said. The old pool house was entirely razed, save for a rear-side concrete floor surface that will be used for the boiler room of the new building.
The rest of the new structure, including its foundation and fittings, needed to be installed prior to the construction of the building itself. While work on the project began last October, it was shut down in December and didn’t get going again until April.
“It needed all new flooring and hard surfaces, which we didn’t get to before shutting the project down (for the winter),” Arlund said. “It ended up being a mild December to where we probably could have got it done. But hindsight is 20-20.”
Stubbornly cold temperatures in April also set the project back, said John Connolly of The McKernon Group, the Brandon, Vt.-based contractor hired for the building’s construction.
“It might have seemed like we had a short winter, but in April it felt like it would never end,” Connolly said. “You can’t lay down the concrete if it’s going to be too cold overnight.”
Bethel’s popular youth swimming programs have 62 children from the town and elsewhere who signed up for lessons that begin on June 27. Barring rapid progress over the next 11 days, temporary amenities, such as portable toilets, will likely need to be used for restrooms and changing rooms at the beginning of the season.
“We expect (temporary amenities use) to be for one week or less,” assistant town manager Abbie Sherman said.
The project also includes connection to the town’s sewer system (the previous building had a leach field), expanded parking and wheelchair accessible walkways. It’s one half of a FEMA “alternative project,” available when an applicant determines public welfare would not be best served by restoring a damaged facility or its function.
In this case, the damaged facility is a bridge over Locust Creek on Old Route 12, an approximately one-mile secondary road paralleling Vermont Route 12 south of Bethel village. Instead of restoring the bridge, the FEMA alternate project will pay for removal of the bridge and installation of vehicle turnaround areas, as well as the recreation center project.
FEMA funding for the alternate project came to approximately $920,000, Arlund said, with an additional $50,000 split between a Vermont Recreation Facilities grant and a match from the town’s general fund.
The recreation center’s dilapidated tennis courts were removed in part to make way for the expanded parking. The recreation committee’s master plan includes new tennis courts, new playground features and a skateboard park.
Corey Stearns, a longtime recreation committee member who doubles as the Whitcomb-Rochester high school boys soccer coach, is among a group in town who would like to see additional features added to the center, such as basketball courts and hiking trails.
“I’m all for areas that provide all-ages community sports, places for people to go and exercise,” Stearns said. “It benefits not only Bethel, but all of central Vermont. A lot of people from places like Stockbridge, Rochester and Royalton come to the pool for swimming lessons.”
Stearns envisions 3-on-3 or 5-on-5 leagues playing on future basketball courts at the facility, as well as a concrete skate park catering to all abilities.
“You can build (skateboard features) out of wood, but then you’re having to come back every five years for repairs,” he said.
Other recreation projects in Bethel include river access improvements at three FEMA buyout sites — with assistance from the nonprofit White River Partnership — and an initiative to improve nonmotorized access to the Branliere Town Forest abutting the east side of the village.
Members of the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps will be in town next month to help with the Branliere project, according to Bethel Select Board chairman Carl Russell.
“I think there is a lot of enthusiasm and support for improving recreational opportunities in town; it’s part of what makes residency here valuable,” Russell said. “Like any town, it’s always a balance of what we desire versus what we can afford.”
Jared Pendak can be reached at jpendak@vnews.com or 603-727-3225.
Correction
Keith Arlund is the Bethel town manager. An earlier version of this story misspelled his last name.