Marsha Crooks fondly remembers spending her childhood summer days at the McKellar Park Pool in the village of Blanchardville.
“It was a place to see your friends in the summer, for high school kids to have jobs, for our fire and EMS to have dive training,” Crooks told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.” “Many of us learned how to swim [there], myself included.”
For six years, the community has gone without this summer gathering spot. Decades of leaks and crumbling infrastructure led the village to close the almost 60-year-old pool in 2019. Yet Crooks and six local women knew that with enough people working together, a repaired pool would bring the rural community together again.
Stay connected to Wisconsin news — your way
Get trustworthy reporting and unique local stories from WPR delivered directly to your inbox.
Despite their determination, the women had no idea what kind of obstacles they would face. But their vision evolved to meet the challenges. And now, the rural community of nearly 800 people in southwestern Wisconsin is eagerly awaiting the opening this summer of a new swim pond.
Women form nonprofit to raise funds
In order to raise money to repair a new pool, the group founded the nonprofit Friends of McKellar Park Inc shortly after the closure. Jody Moen, the nonprofit’s president, told “Wisconsin Today” that that allowed the organization more power to raise funds and apply for grants.
“Then, it became that it couldn’t be repaired,” she said. “We were going to have to replace it.”
Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“We started our first big fundraising event right before COVID shut the world down,” Crooks said. “When we resurfaced after COVID, the cost of this pool just kept climbing and climbing.”
Moen explained that the price tag to rebuild the McKellar Public Pool would eventually reach $2.4 million. Despite costs, nonprofit members pushed forward to raise more than $750,000 through events, donations and pledges.
“We were [applying] for lots of grants, but nobody wants to fund an outdoor pool in these communities anymore,” Crooks said.
Last fall, the group began exploring a cheaper alternative to a swimming pool that gave a nod to historic Blanchardville: a swim pond.
In 1939, a group of men, earning $20 to $40 a week, dug a swimming hole by hand, according to the Blanchardville Historical Society. The pond lasted until the late 1960s before it eventually transitioned into a cement pool.
Last year, the village board approved the swim pond project enthusiastically, since it had a much smaller price tag of $300,000, Moen said.
She said after the pond opens, the group plans to build a new shelter with showers, bathrooms, storage and concessions.
“We’ve gotten a really good following of people that just consistently send money or support us in some way or another,” Moen said.
New swim pond offers natural ecosystem
With the grand opening now less than two months away, Crooks said the group’s collaboration with Wisconsin Lake & Pond Resource and General Engineering Company is why the swim pond is becoming a reality.
“It’ll be very clean,” Crooks said. “Our swim pond will have a synthetic liner, so it’s not going to be a mud bottom.”
The 10-foot-deep pond will have a live-in cleaner, too.
“We’re told by Wisconsin Lake & Pond Resource that if you release a bass or two into the pond, they’ll take care of all those things we don’t want in there, and they control their own population,” she said.
Moen said the group will continue fundraising in the years to come to pay its management partner to treat the water with algaecides and herbicides to ensure 6 to 8 feet of water clarity.
“With the money that we’ve raised so far, we’ve been investing in [certificates of deposit] to keep that going,” she said.
Families of all ages will soon venture onto the pond to enjoy inflatables on the water, as well as have a place again for CPR and lifeguard training.
Crooks said it’s finally sinking in as to how the pool will contribute to the community in the decades to come.
“That’s why we continue to persevere and persist through all of these challenges with our fundraising,” she said.
