When Charles Barto, president of the Koons Pool and Swim Club board of directors, explained last night to Lower Paxton Twp. supervisors that the pool can't open without a new pump, supervisors unanimously approved the money.
The pump, which is at least 30 years old, is 450 feet down and would cost up to $7,500 to replace, Barto said.
Supervisors approved giving the club up to $7,500.
"Be sure to get a receipt," Supervisor Gary Crissman quipped.
The pool was scheduled to open for the season Saturday, but Barto discovered that day the pump wasn't working. It provides well water for the showers and toilets, Barto said.
"If you don't have running water in your bathrooms, you can't be sanitary," he said after last night's meeting. "You don't want to tell children, 'Just go in the pool.'"
Barto and board member Patricia Davis told the supervisors, "We are in dire need. We've got our entire budget devoted to our guards."
Without the pump, the pool could not open, Supervisors Chairman William Hawk said.
With the money, the pool should be open by Saturday, Barto said.
The Linglestown Fire Department has already filled the facility's diving pool, lap pool and baby pool, Barto said. About 120 families and three daycare centers joined last year. Nonmembers can pay $7 per day to swim at the pool, which is in Koons Park, southeast of Linglestown's square, Barto said.
Other than during bad weather and one year when the pool wasn't holding water, the club has always opened by Memorial Day weekend, Barto said.
"It was really frustrating because it was such a nice weekend," he said. "What you're hoping for in a community pool is that you have really warm weather at the beginning of the season, because that's when you get your family memberships. And this was a really beautiful weekend. Except for this, we could have been open and swimming."
In other news, the supervisors approved rezoning 19.08 acres at 6500 Union Deposit Road, where Lawrence Conjar wants to develop 18 single-family houses.
Supervisors rezoned the area from agricultural residential to open space overlay, giving Conjar more latitude in laying out the development, but requiring him to devote 40 percent of the land for parks or a natural buffer area.
The supervisors also approved plans for a 5,470-square-foot one-story MRI Center at Community General Osteopathic Hospital along Londonderry Road.
The supervisors also approved $22,244 last night to pay Pennsylvania Percs Inc. for traffic signals that will immediately turn green for emergency vehicles.
During a joint meeting with the Lower Paxton Twp. Parks and Recreation Board earlier in the night, supervisors asked representatives of Triple Crown Corp. to provide better maps of a recreation area planned for the Stray Winds Farm development.
Township ordinances would require a 22.39-acre park for the 291-acre development in Lower Paxton and Susquehanna townships.
The supervisors gave preliminary approval May 14 for Triple Crown to build at least 443 houses on the Lower Paxton portion of the tract, and another 75 homes are planned in Susquehanna Twp.
DIANA FISHLOCK: 255-8251 or dfishlock@patriot-news.com