MOUNT HEALTHY — Council here has scaled back its plans for improvements at Mount Healthy Park, but it is going ahead with plans to build a new community pool in the park.

        The city will take out a $900,000 loan to build a pool and add a concession stand and bathhouse and increase the deck and grass areas around the pool.

        But the current community pool, which has served the city since 1941 and has been the centerpiece of summer life in the park, will remain in operation this season. Last summer, city officials had been undecided whether to close the pool this year and begin construction on another one.

        The city's original master plan for the park was estimated to cost $2.5 million. It involved not just a new pool but leveling the three tiers of the park, adding an amphitheater, blacktopping a walking trail and working on the ball fields.

        “Council had some concerns about the cost, so we looked at our needs and found that the pool was the most important thing we had to offer the community,” said Tim McInerney, city safety-service director.

        The current pool was not just showing its age, but had developed a leak in recent years that could not be fixed. And a community pool, they maintain, is important to a community's recreational life.

        Don Crank, president of city council, said recreational opportunities, such as a community pool, is an amenity that families look at when trying to decide where to live.

        “We feel like this is a step in the right direction for keeping residents and attracting new people,” said Mr. Crank.

        Councilman Joe Beischel, chairman of the parks committee, said the two main attractions of the park in the summer are the pool and the ball fields.

        “It is essential to the community to have a centralized recreational facility,” he said.

        Mr. McInerney said that construction could begin on a new pool by September. The new pool could be ready by June 2002.

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