Williamstown Group To Purchase Sand Springs Pool
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — A group of residents teamed up to form a nonprofit organization and will purchase the Sand Springs Pool.The newly-formed Sand Springs Recreational Center entered an option agreement last week with Redstone Properties to purchase the pool and is now embarking on a capital campaign. They intend to use the pool as a "community gathering place" with an expanded cafe and a learn-to-swim program when they reopen in June 2013.
"We are delighted to have reached agreement with Redstone Properties on an option to purchase this wonderful facility. We greatly appreciate Redstone's willingness to work with us in preserving this historic place and ensuring its continued presence in our town," the group's President Janette Dudley said in a press release. "With its beautiful pool, hot tub, fitness center and other amenities, we hope that the new Sand Springs once again becomes a place where wonderful summer memories are made."
The pool has been closed since 2008. Last year an employee asked the town to help purchase it with Community Preservation Act funds but was denied. Earlier this year, the committee that makes up the nonprofit again kicked around the idea of asking the Community Preservation Act Committee for funds but later decided not to file an application; opting to instead do it on their own. The price is listed at $599,000.
The group hopes to keep membership fees at a minimum and plans to offer scholarships for the swim program to local children, according to Dudley.
The swim program is named after former Williams College swimming coach Carl Samuelson and his wife Nancy. The program will offer group, semi-private and private lessons to children and adults, according to Dudley. Carl Samuelson and former Olympic swimmer Samantha Livingstone are expected to be involved in that program's operations.
The pool was opened at the Wampanaug Inn and Bath House in 1907 and Redstone, under the name Wampanaug Springs Inc., purchased and renovated it it in 2003.
