Plans for major improvements are underway at the Catholic Youth Organization of Mercer County. The next project will be at the CYO’s Yardville branch, where the current pool house will be demolished in mid-September and construction on a new pool house will begin.
“The current structure served its basic purpose for decades, but it was clearly lacking in many respects,” Tom Mladenetz, executive director of the CYO, said of the 60-year-old pool house, which was built in 1958.
The new pool house, Mladenetz continued, will be two stories high and 5,000 square feet. The first floor will include larger changing areas for boys and girls with private changing stalls, restroom facilities and showers. The second floor will provide staff with a restroom/locker area and a training/meeting room for CPR and first aid classes as well as staff meetings. The outside upper deck area will provide space for families to observe children during evening swim lessons, while the covered patio on the rear of the first floor will be a shady area that is easily accessible to campers in the central camp activity area. The barbed wire fence surrounding the pool area will also be replaced.
“The goal is for this building to open in the Summer of 2020,” Mladenetz said, noting that the CYO, in consultation with diocesan officials and the CYO facility committee, engineer and architect, have been planning for the improvements for several years.
Mladenetz said the CYO will announce the pool house “demo date” on the CYO’s website (cyomercer.org) and Facebook page and the public will be invited to observe. The website also has information on making donations for the new pool house, which costs between $800,000 and $900,000. The CYO is hoping to raise $100,000 to complete the financial plan for the project, of which $18,000 has already been committed.
Mladenetz said the new pool house is one of a number of improvement projects taking place at the CYO’s Yardville site.
“The Yardville CYO is a very busy place and it is still growing,” Mladenetz said.
In 2014, the Msgr. Toomey Annex gym/large multipurpose room was opened, and that space has been used extensively year-round seven days a week for its preschool, afterschool and youth sports programs as well as swim lessons, holiday camps, facility rentals and the CYO Day Camp, which completed its 61st summer this year. Given the Yardville site’s location Mladenetz said it draws families from three counties – Mercer, families from Allentown, Monmouth County, and Bordentown, Burlington County.
For more information, contact Mladenetz at tom@cyomercer.org or 609-585-4280, ext. 107.