LISBON – Lisbon Council’s Park Committee met Thursday in an effort to address the repairs needed to keep the Sadie Van Fossen pool up and running.

The village has been dealing with an ongoing leak at the pool but it was filtration problems that ultimately forced the pool to close earlier than anticipated this past season. The leak will need to be repaired or the wall replaced and a filtration system (new pump and tank) installed before it can re-open. The leak is allowing 30,000 gallons of water to be lost per day.

Costs could be as high as $200,000 to make the necessary repairs. Mayor Peter Wilson told the committee that funding opportunities are available but time is not on the village’s side.

“I could put in for a grant that’s a 50-50 match. We would have to pay for half of it and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources would pay for the other half. That’s one option,” Wilson said. “The bad thing is this grant application is due Nov. 14. The other option is we could make a request to the state as part of the Capital Expenditures Budget. I spoke to Ohio Sen. Al Cutrona about this and he said this is a project they would back but they may not have a Capital Expenditures Budget this year due to the property tax issue.

“The third option is I think we are going to end next year in the budget with about $300,000 in our capital expenditures fund but if we do that we are paying for everything without any type of additional financing or funding.”

Both funding opportunities are reimbursable meaning the village would pay for the repairs and get the money back if Lisbon is awarded either funding opportunities. That money would come out of Capital Expenditures and be encumbered.

Unfortunately, either option for outside funds would not be awarded until next year, making it unlikely the pool would be open in 2026 — unless the village pays all expenses out of pocket with no grants to offset costs. Either grant prohibits work to be started on a project until funding is awarded.

“So in other words, we are looking at not opening the pool next year,” councilwoman Susan Temple said. “If we apply for those grants, they could potentially pay for half instead of us paying for the whole thing.”

Councilwoman Melissa Hiner also suggested the village look into the One-Time Strategic Community Investment Fund through the state which allocates leftover COVID money to local projects statewide as another way to potentially secure funds for pool repairs.

The consensus is that the leak is likely coming from the eastern wall, but the exact location is unknown.

The village followed the first of three suggestions by councilman-elect Joe Morenz to try to isolate where water is leaking. The return to the pump house was sealed off and the gutters filled with water but no leaks were found, indicating the leak is not in the gutters.

Morenz’s second suggestion was filling the holes under the gutters, cutting the fill pipe in the pump house and gluing a 90-degree elbow to create a stand pipe and then filling the stand pipe. That step will indicate if there is an internal leak from the intake part of the gutter behind the wall that would likely have been caused by a broken weld, rust or freezing in the winter.

“We can do that, but it’s just a matter of the street department prioritizing it,” Wilson explained. Also, water would have to be turned back on to the pool to do so as the facility has been winterized.

The third suggestion involved sealing the top of the wall to the gutter system and then filling the pool. That step must be done after the intake because if the intake is leaking it will flow back into the gutter system. However, that process can not be completed due to the current condition of the filter tank.

“We would have to replace the filter tank with that and we can no longer weld on the tank because it is so thin,” Wilson said. “If we were to start to pump we risk rupturing the filter and burning the pump up.”

If the leak can be isolated, Lisbon Street Supervisor Jim Oliver said patching the pool by welding stainless steel is another repair option the village could consider.

The pool was originally built in 1956 using a $5,000 grant from Sadie Van Fossan (a longtime village educator)and a community swimming pool levy. The pool’s construction date is 1956 with the “L” addition added in the late 1970s.