Fundraising efforts aim to help fix leaky Greensburg YMCA pool

A group of local triathletes who have been training at the Greensburg YMCA to prepare for upcoming competitions have taken on a new challenge: raising money to help repair the leaky pool that is so critical to their success.

A Greensburg YMCA Pool GoFundMe page, created by 35-year-old Jeremy Eshleman in late January, had raised $2,050 as of Friday.

“Our group (six triathletes) trains here, and we did not want (the pool) to get shut down,” said Eshleman, a Greensburg resident.

A fellow triathlete, Lynn Armbrust of Southwest Greensburg, said they were “desperate” to keep the pool open to train for one of the legs of the triathlon, which also includes biking and running.

It will cost about $8,000 to fix the pool, said Kris Peters, YMCA aquatics director. The Greensburg Y Swim Team and others have donated as well, raising the total to about $5,600, Peters said.

“It was a community effort,” Peters said.

It was “awesome” that YMCA members and friends of the Y started a GoFundMe page to help defray the costs of the repairs, said Suzanne Printz, CEO of the downtown Y. The cost of the repairs is another expense that, “while you always have a contingency for, during covid, just hits us with poor timing,” Printz said.

The pool, which is 50 years old, began leaking Jan. 16. Peters put red strips of tape on the front wall to mark the receding water level. She estimated that about 42,000 gallons of the 188,000-gallon pool, or nearly a quarter of the water, leaked out since mid-January.

The pool design — with a hopper-style bottom with so many seams and cracks — made it harder to detect the leaks, Peters said. The Greensburg Volunteer Fire Department Dive Team, which trains in the pool, made underwater repairs.

Two bottom drains were leaking as were the pipes carrying water from the gutters from poolside into a surge tank. Those pipes were being repaired by a plumber this week.

Peters hopes the work will be finished next week.

More than a dozen people have volunteered their time to fix the pool, she noted.

“The Y means so much to these people,” Printz said.

One of those is Armbrust, who learned to swim at the YMCA close to 40 years ago.

The main pool — the YMCA also has a shallow children’s pool — is leaking at a time when the property’s fitness center is closed, resulting in reduced revenue. The fitness center has been closed since Sept. 30. It previously was closed last spring for about two months when Gov. Tom Wolf ordered nonessential businesses to shutdown. It opened over the summer, then closed again as membership dropped and covid restrictions tightened.

Youth sports and swim lessons still are being conducted, and the pool is used by the YMCA and Greensburg Salem swim teams, Printz said.

The YMCA board, staff and volunteers are working on a strategic plan to maintain its status as the “front porch” of the community, Printz said.

The health and fitness facilities will not reopen until the YMCA can do it in a fiscally responsible way.

The nonprofit has to “solve the financial model that our health and wellness departments operated under, as they are not financially solvent,” she added.

The facility remains open for its pre-school program. Before- and after-school programs at seven of its 11 sites continue to serve youngsters, Printz said. Its adult training facility was closed, but reopened Wednesday, Printz said.