Moores Park Pool reopening efforts get $118K in city support, will fund restoration plans

LANSING — Moores Park Pool once served as the spot for residents to cool off during hot days, but again this summer, it sits empty. 

More than $100,000 in federal COVID-19 relief funding will put the historic pool back on the road to reopening. 

The city was awarded about $49.9 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding. It will be paid in two installments of approximately $24.9 million. The first was received on Aug. 5, 2021, and the second is expected to be received by Friday . 

Lansing City Council approved a $118,000 appropriation from the second installment to develop restoration plans for the Moores Park Pool. Once complete, the plans will outline what repairs and improvements are required to reopen the pool, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this month, and the cost of the improvements.  

The pool and all city pools did not reopen during the summer of 2020 amid COVID-19 concerns. Moores Park Pool remained closed while others reopened.

In 2019, the pool was leaking. Steps leading to the pool were cracked. Collars were placed around above-ground pipes that are affected by Michigan's freeze-thaw cycles in the winter.

City leaders said the pool had become too expensive to maintain.

The J.H. Moores Memorial Natatorium, known as the Moores Park Pool, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. According to the Michigan Historic Preservation Network website, the ellipsoidal, fieldstone rock-ring structure, designed by Lansing City Engineer Wesley Bintz in 1922, is tucked into a hillside overlooking the Grand River.

Using the Moores Park Pool as his prototype, Bintz founded Bintz Pool Company in 1923, and went on to build approximately 120 municipal pools across the country. Only 19 Bintz pools exist today, and just eight remain in operation, according to the MHPN website.

The development of the plans will be a major step toward the eventual reopening of the pool, said Bill Castanier, president of the Historical Society of Greater Lansing and member of the Friends of Moores Park Pool group. 

Previous cost estimates were rough, ballpark guesses, he said. The plans will be an overview of every nut, screw, bolt and pipe needed for the pool to reopen and welcome swimmers. 

“Without that, you can’t move forward,” Castanier said. “This will be the next step and a very important step in finding out how much it will cost to restore that pool.”

More: Lansing parks got fourth-largest slice of COVID relief funding. How they're spending it.

City officials previously estimated repairs would carry a price tag of more than $1.2 million.Castanier has heard estimates ranging from $3 million to $5 million.While there likely will be a steep cost to repair the pool, the restoration plans will at least outline exactly what needs to be done and how much it will cost, he said. 

Moores Park Pool was the subject of a structural assessment in 2021, but that was not a complete construction document and it didn’t detail what it was going to take to repair the pool, according to City Communications Director Scott Bean.

WTA Architects is expected to develop the restoration plans. Fundraising efforts will begin to help cover the costs of repairs outlined in the plans.

Friends of Moores Park Pool helped raise more than $30,000 for the initial assessment, Castanier said, and the group currently has $6,000 to $7,000 to go toward the pool improvements, though much of the funds will go toward fundraising materials. 

“The challenge is to raise millions of dollars in the next couple years,” he said. “That’s what it’s going to take, minimum. It’s going to take millions of dollars.”

Castanier expects to apply for various federal grants that offer funding for projects aimed at the upkeep of historical structures, while also undertaking a large fundraising campaign seeking corporate support and donations. 

Contact Mark Johnson at (517) 377-1026 or majohnson2@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ByMarkJohnson.