Clarion Area School Board members voted Tuesday to demolish the community swimming pool in Clarion Borough due to the cost of renovations to the five-decade-old pool.
“To bring it back to where it was a fully functioning facility was cost prohibitive,” said Clarion Superintendent Joe Carrico.
The published cost for the pool and pool house was estimated to be $1.3 million.
The $91,191 total cost of the demolition will be split evenly between the borough and school district. The contractor on the job will be Terra Works.
“We have been working with Todd Colisimo from the borough through all of the meetings, bid openings and the whole process,” said Carrico.
Carrico said there are no long term plans for the space at this time.
“Clarion Area is a land poor district,” he said. Most schools have a couple of hundred acres to develop. At the elementary school we have the playground area and then we butt up against the tree line. At the high school, the campus runs down just below the current football field and then to the tree line on the other side of the pool. There is just not a lot of space.”
The school board approved a contract with Clarion County on Tuesday to use the facilities at Clarion County Park for the district’s spring sports.
In another matter Tuesday, the school board unanimously re-affirmed Carrico as superintendent.
The Department of Education now requires districts to inform a superintendent of their intentions 90 days prior to the end of a contract. Carrico’s current contract expires at the end of June.