After nearly 90 years, historic Mount Carmel pool will be demolished, what’s next?

MOUNT CARMEL, Ill. (WFIE) - The Mount Carmel city pool has been around for nearly 90 years, but now it’s being demolished.

“Unfortunately after 87 years of operation, the state has let us know we cannot operate any longer,” said mayor Joe Judge.

Judge says they’ve had multiple issues with the pool specifically with the filtration system over the years.

But after failing a safety inspection this year, the state of Illinois shut down the pool.

And it won’t be opening ever again.

“We’ve already started demoing the pumphouse,” said Judge.

The city pool originally opened in 1938.

It was the last pool standing that was part of the Works Progress Administration.

“Back then they built these iconic locations such as this,” said Judge.

This pool won’t just live on in the history books though, it’s a pool that lives on in many people’s memory.

“There’s a lot of people who have memories of their first date, the first time they did family things here, where they learned to swim, things of that nature,” said Judge.

After nearly 90 years open and years of needed improvements adding up, Judge says it’s time to let go.

“The big picture is that everyone needs to understand it’s not for my age or older, it’s for the kids,” he said.

With the future generation in mind Judge already has a rendering of what the next one could look like.

“It’ll be a hatchet style, it’ll have a high dive, enclosed slide that meets ADA guidelines,” he said.

The new look is projected to cost over 8 million dollars. 3.5 of which is being asked to be paid for by citizens.

“Which would be a 20 year bond on property taxes,” said Judge.

People can vote on that in this year’s election.

Early voting in Illinois starts on Thursday.

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