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Carbondale’s ‘Let’s Make a Splash!’ campaign nears $1 million goal with six months remaining

Carbondale's Parks and Recreation director Eric Brendlinger (Left) and Brian Froelich , Aquatics, health and wellness director (Right) pose in the newly dug out pool on Wednesday January 29th.
Jaymin Kanzer/Post Independent

The John M. Fleet pool has been a staple of downtown Carbondale since 1979. 

The importance of the pool was never lost on the community of Carbondale, and over the past six months, they have shown how much the public community pool has meant to downtown Carbondale. Not only is the city committed to renewing the pool for another 50 years, but they are working tirelessly to make sure it complies with the rest of Carbondale’s energetic footprint.  

“The importance of keeping the ethos of Carbondale was dire for the project,” Carbondale’s Parks and Recreation Director Eric Brendlinger said. “It’s super important for people to realize that we probably could have built the pool without making a large fundraising effort, but it would have been an all-gas facility. We would have reused the same building that wasn’t ADA compliant. It would have been one step forward and two steps back. We are building a pool that is entirely energy efficient. It will have air sourced heat pumps. There will be no gas coming into this building at all, solar panels on the roof. We are really walking the walk, not just talking the talk.” 



Although the 1980s grey brick architecture did a good job of reminding you of the feeling you got at summer camp, the pool desperately needed a boost into the 21st century.  

It’s the first coordinated philanthropic effort the City of Carbondale has put together in the town’s history, and the community has shown what the aging pool meant to them. Since July 1, 2024, the City of Carbondale has already built over $1.5 million for the community, bringing them within $1 million of their $2.5 million fundraising goal. The campaign will continue fundraising until July 1, 2025, and are on track to reach their goal. 



“It’s a community pool, and we want this to be a community project,” Carbondale’s Town Manager Lauren Gister said. “Participation from everyone is welcome at any level. When the Carbondale Aquatics Center is open, we want people to say, ‘I did this.'” 

When the project was initially pitched in 2019, the cost of the construction was staggering, but not even in the same solar system as where the estimate sits today. 

“Before we got the bond, the estimated construction price was $7 million, so we bonded for eight to give ourselves a bit of leeway,” Gister said. “Contruction prices have just skyrocketed since then. There was a perfectly random order of events that made prices shoot up. Inflation, COVID, supply chain issues, there are a lot of places we can point.” 

Brendlinger had a unique perspective on why they were seeing such a lack of interest from the state government.  

“The interesting thing I found out while I was doing research for grants was that there were a lot of pools in Colorado that were built in the late 70s or early 80s that were nearing the end of their lifespans,” Brendlinger explained. “So, when I applied for grants, there were a lot of other pools fighting for the same grants. There is an odd timing issue that a lot of pools are going through.” 

Even though Colorado’s state government can’t help the way the City of Carbondale would hope, the construction is pushing forward thanks to the fundraising efforts from the community. They turned to the local organizations, Land+Shelter Architecture and Planning and to A.D. Miller for their construction services. Volunteer Campaign Chairwoman Kathleen Wanatowicz was blown away by the number of names on the donation list.  

“It’s completely unique that the municipality is hosting a fundraising effort,” Wanatowicz said. “They didn’t want to go back to the voters and bond for more money, so we’re trying to make it work with what we have. That means individual participation has so much more significance and will make that much more of a difference.” 

The restoration includes a complete remodel of the aquatic facility building along with turning the single pool into two separates. The single L-shaped pool which previously shared people swimming laps and kids enjoying the slide, will turn into two different bodies of water. One will turn into a 12-foot 6-lane Olympic sized lap pool, equipped with a diving board, and a climbing wall. While the other one will start with a zero-point entry to a 5-foot recreational pool with features like a volleyball net, and splash features. The hot tub that previously took residence alongside Main Street will move across the property to sit next to 7th street.  

“The capacity for swimmers at the old pool was 180. After the renovations are complete, that number will jump to 230,” Brendlinger said. “That’s the maximum people that can be in the three bodies of water. We will see a massive increase in use, because there can be simultaneous use. Before it had to be either the lap pool, or the slide and not both. But now we can have three bodies of water all activated at the same time. That will increase the options visitors have and I think that will increase the local impact.” 

The surrounding area will also be impacted by the renovations. The pool will push almost all the way to the Miner’s Memorial in Sopris Park, and will grow in the opposite direction by extending the sidewalk into Main Street. The newly extended sidewalks will give room for food trucks to park alongside Main Street and will positively contribute to making the City of Carbondale more walkable.  

“We live between two rivers, and in a town with an open ditch system. Learning how to swim is one of the most important aspects of the new pool, and without access to a local, subsidized pool, a lot of people would never learn the important life skill of swimming,” Brendlinger said.  

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