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Eisenschmidt Pool boiler to be replaced
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Jeremy C. Ruark / The Chronicle
The Eisenschmidt Pool is 110 feet long and 50 feet wide. It holds 230,000 gallons of water.
Originally published in The Chronicle Vol. 139 March 24, 2021 JEREMY C. RUARK jruark@countrymedia.net
Anne Scholtz has been pretty busy over the past year. As the general manager at Eisenschmidt Pool in St. Helens, she was forced last spring to close the facility and lay off 25 employees due to the financial strain of the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving her and a small core management team to keep the pool stable until regular operations could resume. Adding to those issues was a pool leak and damage caused by a winter storm. The latest challenge is an aging 30-year-old boiler. “It hasn’t been reliable in nearly a year,” Scholtz said. “I have to come in regularly and check it. We’d had to put a camera on it so I can tell when it goes out. We have made repairs and had to rewire it, but it needs to be replaced.” The boiler is essential to keeping the 230,000 gallon pool and the air in the building warm. Scholtz had Energy Trust of Oregon
Jeremy C. Ruark / The Chronicle
Eisenschmidt Pool General Manager Anne Scholtz said the pool boiler is unreliable and needs to be replaced.
conduct a test of the boiler and the report showed it was only 64% efficient. “Energy Trust determined that we would save $2,000 a month if we replaced this boiler,” she said. The pool district has ordered two condenser boilers, one for backup, and one to replace the existing
aging boiler. The cost for that project is estimated to be $110,000. Scholtz said the Energy Trust has agreed to pay $42,000 towards the cost. “That is extremely generous,” she said. “We also obtained a $70,000, threeyear loan, from Columbia Pacific Economic District and we have to pay that
back at $2,000 a month.” To help cover that cost, the pool team launched a GoFundMe account last week. As of Tuesday, March 23, the account had collected $4,670. Donations may be made at Help Eisenschmidt Pool Install a New Boiler. The pool, located at 1070 Eisenschmidt Lane in
St. Helens, reopened Feb. 15 by appointment only under the pandemic health and safety guidelines. “We continue to offer limited laps, swim lessons, aerobics and the St. Helens and Scappoose High School swim teams used the pool for practices,” Scholtz said. The pool was built in 1939 following three drownings of three people in the Columbia River in 1936. “That’s why this pool is so important,” she said. “We can teach people how to swim and offer them a place to swim safely so they don’t have to use the river.” Before COVID the annual operating budget for the pool was approximately $700,000. “Now, because I had to lay off 25 people due to the pandemic and I’ve only got nine of them back, I will try to write my new budget for around $500,000,” Scholtz said. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the pool attracted an estimated 500 visitors daily during peak seasons, according to Scholtz. For more information, call the Eisenschmidt Pool at 503-397-2283.
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