Close Conklin Pool: Stop Spending $426,000 a Year on a Pool That Leaks Into the Ground
The Issue
Close Conklin, Build at Melrose: Stop Pouring $426,000 a Year Into a Pool That Leaks Into the Ground
The Problem
Conklin Pool is 59 years old. It leaks, it has leaked for at least 11 years, and the Township has spent that entire time repairing everything around the leak without once diagnosing or fixing the leak itself. On October 6th, the Board terminated the Melrose lease. Whatever comes next, one decision cannot wait for a new pool to be designed, bid and built: the decision to stop pouring money into this one.
Here Is the Catch
The Township's own FAQ, published in August, puts Conklin's operating cost at approximately $426,000 a year. About $121,000 of that is water and utilities, because the pool loses so much water it has to be refilled continuously all season and then drained and refilled again every spring. Facilities staff spend an estimated 20% of their entire year keeping it running. The same FAQ says the shell leak is substantial, ongoing, and cannot be permanently repaired without replacing the pool.
That is not an activist's claim. That is the Township describing its own asset.
What Has Actually Been Done
The record on the Township's website is long and it is consistent:
2014–2015: 8 shallow-end wall inlets were capped after leaks were found. A leak-detection survey scoped all 46 returns. Heavy water loss was recorded in the staff reports. The capped inlets appear in the 2016 pool audit as an open item and in the 2017 study as a $16,000 line, and I can find no record that they were ever reopened.
2016: the pool audit called for structural analysis, ground-penetrating radar, and camera scoping of the buried supply piping, which it described as believed to be compromised. I can find no record that any of the 3 was done.
2017: the pool feasibility study priced repairs and expressly excluded leveling and stabilizing the pool structures. The Township's own FAQ reads that study as concluding the long-term answer was replacement.
2023: the facilities study found the pool shell itself leaks, that the pool loses thousands of gallons and needs a water supply running non-stop, and that the wall behind the shell is crumbling. Its words: a liability to the Township, financially and legally. It priced a code-compliant renovation at $3.2–4.3 million, which the Township says would buy about 5 more years, and a new pool on the site at $6–8 million.
Dec 2023–2024: the most extensive repair campaign in the record. The filter room was repiped, the entire main pool repointed, every seam sealed, 70+ gutter blocks replaced, loose plaster patched. The supervisor who oversaw it reported to the Board that much larger problems with both pools still needed to be addressed.
2025: the contractor came back to replace a leaking 8-inch shutoff valve in the filter room it had rebuilt 18 months earlier. A new pump went in.
2026: the Township's FAQ still describes the shell leak as substantial and ongoing.
The most comprehensive surface repair this pool has ever had did not stop the leak. Either the surface was never the problem, or it was never enough, and in 11 years nobody tested which. The FAQ admits it: years of work with pool professionals "have not resulted in formal written reports."
Yes, It Opened on Time 3 Years Running.
It opened because staff spend a fifth of their year keeping it open, and because the Township refills it around the clock. That is not a pool in good condition. That is a pool being carried.
The Risk
Every season Conklin stays open is another $426,000 by the Township's own estimate, about $170,000 of which the Township says a new pool would save, with the FAQ warning that costly repairs could shutter the pool at any time. The 2023 study said renovation was impractical and recommended a new facility; the Township reads the 2017 study the same way. The 2024 facilities plan priced a new Conklin facility at $6.1 million. The Township has been told in 2017, 2023 and 2024, by the consultants it paid, that this pool is at the end of its life. Each year of delay is another year of operating cost, another year of construction inflation on the replacement, and another chance that the pool fails mid-season with no replacement in sight.
Why Melrose
The Township already owns the land. The 2.72-acre pool parcel inside the Melrose redevelopment was deeded to Cheltenham in December 2025 and stays Township property whether or not any lease exists. The terminated deal priced a finished pool there at $4.5 million. The Township's own studies price a new pool at the Conklin site at $6–8 million before demolition, and that number has only gone up since 2023. Building at Melrose also means Conklin stays open until the day the new pool opens; rebuilding at Conklin means tearing down the only pool in East Cheltenham first and going without one for however long construction takes. The Board said on October 6th it still intends to pursue Melrose. Good. Bid it, publish the numbers, and get it built.
Why Not Conklin
A new pool at Conklin doesn't go on fresh ground. It goes on ground that has had a leaking pool sitting on it since at least 2015, when staff reports first recorded heavy water loss and a leak-detection survey scoped all 46 returns. The 2016 audit went further: it flagged the buried supply piping as believed to be compromised and called for 3 things before anyone decided the pool's future, a structural analysis, ground-penetrating radar, and camera scoping of the lines. The 2017 study then priced repairs and expressly excluded leveling and stabilizing the pool structures. The 2023 study found the shell itself leaking thousands of gallons and the wall behind it crumbling.
I can find no record that the structural analysis, the radar survey or the camera scoping was ever done. 10 years, 2 consultant teams, 2 full studies, and nobody has looked under the pool.
That matters now more than it did then. Anyone proposing to rebuild at Conklin is proposing to put $6–8 million of new concrete on a subgrade that has been taking water for a decade and has never been surveyed. Before a single drawing can be done, the Township would have to do the radar and soil work the 2016 audit asked for, find out what a decade of leaking did to the ground and the buried lines, and price whatever remediation that turns up. That is a cost and a delay the 2017, 2023 and 2024 estimates do not include, which means the real Conklin number is higher than any figure anyone has quoted, and nobody knows by how much.
Melrose is being graded and serviced as part of a development already under construction. The site work is in the developer's scope, not the Township's. Nobody has to dig up a leaking pool to find out what's under it first.
If the ground at Conklin is fine, a radar survey will say so in a week. It's telling that in 10 years nobody ordered one.
What We Are Asking
We, the undersigned residents and taxpayers of Cheltenham Township, ask the Board of Commissioners to:
Set a firm closure date for Conklin Pool and put it in writing: no later than the opening of the replacement pool, with no further capital repairs in the meantime.
Spend nothing further on Conklin beyond safe operation to that date. No more capital repairs on a pool the Township's own consultants have already written off.
Build the replacement at Melrose, on land the Township already owns, through an openly bid process with a published timeline. The last deal had a price of $4.5 million; let the bids prove or beat it. If anyone believes a Conklin rebuild can be done for less, the same bid process will show it.
Before any Conklin rebuild is even priced, produce the written engineering assessment that a decade of work never produced: structural analysis, leak diagnosis, ground-penetrating radar, and a real cost to fix the root, not the symptoms. If the shell and the ground can be fixed, show the number. If they can't, stop pretending.
Sign if you want a pool in Cheltenham that we are not refilling by the hour.
IMPORTANT FOR CHELTENHAM RESIDENTS: please enter your neighborhood (Elkins Park, Glenside, Melrose Park, Wyncote, Cheltenham, La Mott) in the City field when signing so your signature counts as a resident.
Sources (all Township documents)
Township FAQ, "Future Community Pool at Melrose," Aug 12 2026, rev. Aug 23 2026 — the $426,000, $121,000 and 20% figures, the shell-leak statement, "have not resulted in formal written reports": https://www.cheltenhampa.gov/newsview.aspx?nid=6667 (PDF: https://www.cheltenhamtownship.org/docview.aspx?docid=51438
Township Facilities Study, Oct 18 2023 — shell leaks, wall behind shell crumbling, "a liability to the Township," $3.3–4.3M renovation, $6–8M new pool: https://www.cheltenhamtownship.org/docview.aspx?docid=50524
Aquatic Center Feasibility Study 2017 — Dec 2016 site audit (Appendix B), capped inlets, leveling and stabilizing excluded, the call for structural analysis, ground-penetrating radar and camera scoping, the $16,000 inlet line: https://www.cheltenhamtownship.org/docview.aspx?docid=50520
Special Meeting on Facilities, Mar 12 2024 — "removal and reconstruction" of Conklin, $6.1M: https://www.cheltenhamtownship.org/files/documents/20240312FacilitiesPresentation1740121222031324PM.pdf
Property Maintenance reports, Dec 2023 – May 2025 (filter-room repipe, drain-down, 70+ gutter blocks, full repoint, 8-inch valve, new pump) — Public Affairs Committee agenda packets, e.g. Jan 10 2024: https://www.cheltenhamtownship.org/files/documents/PublicAffairsCommitteeAgenda01-10-24042121010524PM1706.pdf
Parks & Recreation Committee minutes, Sep 9 2015 (underground leak) and May 11 2016 (all 46 returns scoped) — Parks & Recreation Committee agenda archive, 2015–2016
Deed of dedication for the Melrose pool parcel, Board of Commissioners, Dec 17 2025 (Resolution 47-25)
In the Media
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct 2 2026 — "Cheltenham will consider canceling its agreement to replace Conklin Pool": https://www.inquirer.com/news/cheltenham-pool-contract-special-meeting-20261002.html
Glenside Local, Oct 2 2026 — "Cheltenham Township to host special meeting on Oct. 6 to consider terminating the Ground Lease Agreement with Melrose Pool, LLC": https://glensidelocal.com/cheltenham-township-to-host-special-meeting-on-oct-6-to-consider-terminating-the-ground-lease-agreement-with-melrose-pool-llc/
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The Issue
Close Conklin, Build at Melrose: Stop Pouring $426,000 a Year Into a Pool That Leaks Into the Ground
The Problem
Conklin Pool is 59 years old. It leaks, it has leaked for at least 11 years, and the Township has spent that entire time repairing everything around the leak without once diagnosing or fixing the leak itself. On October 6th, the Board terminated the Melrose lease. Whatever comes next, one decision cannot wait for a new pool to be designed, bid and built: the decision to stop pouring money into this one.
Here Is the Catch
The Township's own FAQ, published in August, puts Conklin's operating cost at approximately $426,000 a year. About $121,000 of that is water and utilities, because the pool loses so much water it has to be refilled continuously all season and then drained and refilled again every spring. Facilities staff spend an estimated 20% of their entire year keeping it running. The same FAQ says the shell leak is substantial, ongoing, and cannot be permanently repaired without replacing the pool.
That is not an activist's claim. That is the Township describing its own asset.
What Has Actually Been Done
The record on the Township's website is long and it is consistent:
2014–2015: 8 shallow-end wall inlets were capped after leaks were found. A leak-detection survey scoped all 46 returns. Heavy water loss was recorded in the staff reports. The capped inlets appear in the 2016 pool audit as an open item and in the 2017 study as a $16,000 line, and I can find no record that they were ever reopened.
2016: the pool audit called for structural analysis, ground-penetrating radar, and camera scoping of the buried supply piping, which it described as believed to be compromised. I can find no record that any of the 3 was done.
2017: the pool feasibility study priced repairs and expressly excluded leveling and stabilizing the pool structures. The Township's own FAQ reads that study as concluding the long-term answer was replacement.
2023: the facilities study found the pool shell itself leaks, that the pool loses thousands of gallons and needs a water supply running non-stop, and that the wall behind the shell is crumbling. Its words: a liability to the Township, financially and legally. It priced a code-compliant renovation at $3.2–4.3 million, which the Township says would buy about 5 more years, and a new pool on the site at $6–8 million.
Dec 2023–2024: the most extensive repair campaign in the record. The filter room was repiped, the entire main pool repointed, every seam sealed, 70+ gutter blocks replaced, loose plaster patched. The supervisor who oversaw it reported to the Board that much larger problems with both pools still needed to be addressed.
2025: the contractor came back to replace a leaking 8-inch shutoff valve in the filter room it had rebuilt 18 months earlier. A new pump went in.
2026: the Township's FAQ still describes the shell leak as substantial and ongoing.
The most comprehensive surface repair this pool has ever had did not stop the leak. Either the surface was never the problem, or it was never enough, and in 11 years nobody tested which. The FAQ admits it: years of work with pool professionals "have not resulted in formal written reports."
Yes, It Opened on Time 3 Years Running.
It opened because staff spend a fifth of their year keeping it open, and because the Township refills it around the clock. That is not a pool in good condition. That is a pool being carried.
The Risk
Every season Conklin stays open is another $426,000 by the Township's own estimate, about $170,000 of which the Township says a new pool would save, with the FAQ warning that costly repairs could shutter the pool at any time. The 2023 study said renovation was impractical and recommended a new facility; the Township reads the 2017 study the same way. The 2024 facilities plan priced a new Conklin facility at $6.1 million. The Township has been told in 2017, 2023 and 2024, by the consultants it paid, that this pool is at the end of its life. Each year of delay is another year of operating cost, another year of construction inflation on the replacement, and another chance that the pool fails mid-season with no replacement in sight.
Why Melrose
The Township already owns the land. The 2.72-acre pool parcel inside the Melrose redevelopment was deeded to Cheltenham in December 2025 and stays Township property whether or not any lease exists. The terminated deal priced a finished pool there at $4.5 million. The Township's own studies price a new pool at the Conklin site at $6–8 million before demolition, and that number has only gone up since 2023. Building at Melrose also means Conklin stays open until the day the new pool opens; rebuilding at Conklin means tearing down the only pool in East Cheltenham first and going without one for however long construction takes. The Board said on October 6th it still intends to pursue Melrose. Good. Bid it, publish the numbers, and get it built.
Why Not Conklin
A new pool at Conklin doesn't go on fresh ground. It goes on ground that has had a leaking pool sitting on it since at least 2015, when staff reports first recorded heavy water loss and a leak-detection survey scoped all 46 returns. The 2016 audit went further: it flagged the buried supply piping as believed to be compromised and called for 3 things before anyone decided the pool's future, a structural analysis, ground-penetrating radar, and camera scoping of the lines. The 2017 study then priced repairs and expressly excluded leveling and stabilizing the pool structures. The 2023 study found the shell itself leaking thousands of gallons and the wall behind it crumbling.
I can find no record that the structural analysis, the radar survey or the camera scoping was ever done. 10 years, 2 consultant teams, 2 full studies, and nobody has looked under the pool.
That matters now more than it did then. Anyone proposing to rebuild at Conklin is proposing to put $6–8 million of new concrete on a subgrade that has been taking water for a decade and has never been surveyed. Before a single drawing can be done, the Township would have to do the radar and soil work the 2016 audit asked for, find out what a decade of leaking did to the ground and the buried lines, and price whatever remediation that turns up. That is a cost and a delay the 2017, 2023 and 2024 estimates do not include, which means the real Conklin number is higher than any figure anyone has quoted, and nobody knows by how much.
Melrose is being graded and serviced as part of a development already under construction. The site work is in the developer's scope, not the Township's. Nobody has to dig up a leaking pool to find out what's under it first.
If the ground at Conklin is fine, a radar survey will say so in a week. It's telling that in 10 years nobody ordered one.
What We Are Asking
We, the undersigned residents and taxpayers of Cheltenham Township, ask the Board of Commissioners to:
Set a firm closure date for Conklin Pool and put it in writing: no later than the opening of the replacement pool, with no further capital repairs in the meantime.
Spend nothing further on Conklin beyond safe operation to that date. No more capital repairs on a pool the Township's own consultants have already written off.
Build the replacement at Melrose, on land the Township already owns, through an openly bid process with a published timeline. The last deal had a price of $4.5 million; let the bids prove or beat it. If anyone believes a Conklin rebuild can be done for less, the same bid process will show it.
Before any Conklin rebuild is even priced, produce the written engineering assessment that a decade of work never produced: structural analysis, leak diagnosis, ground-penetrating radar, and a real cost to fix the root, not the symptoms. If the shell and the ground can be fixed, show the number. If they can't, stop pretending.
Sign if you want a pool in Cheltenham that we are not refilling by the hour.
IMPORTANT FOR CHELTENHAM RESIDENTS: please enter your neighborhood (Elkins Park, Glenside, Melrose Park, Wyncote, Cheltenham, La Mott) in the City field when signing so your signature counts as a resident.
Sources (all Township documents)
Township FAQ, "Future Community Pool at Melrose," Aug 12 2026, rev. Aug 23 2026 — the $426,000, $121,000 and 20% figures, the shell-leak statement, "have not resulted in formal written reports": https://www.cheltenhampa.gov/newsview.aspx?nid=6667 (PDF: https://www.cheltenhamtownship.org/docview.aspx?docid=51438
Township Facilities Study, Oct 18 2023 — shell leaks, wall behind shell crumbling, "a liability to the Township," $3.3–4.3M renovation, $6–8M new pool: https://www.cheltenhamtownship.org/docview.aspx?docid=50524
Aquatic Center Feasibility Study 2017 — Dec 2016 site audit (Appendix B), capped inlets, leveling and stabilizing excluded, the call for structural analysis, ground-penetrating radar and camera scoping, the $16,000 inlet line: https://www.cheltenhamtownship.org/docview.aspx?docid=50520
Special Meeting on Facilities, Mar 12 2024 — "removal and reconstruction" of Conklin, $6.1M: https://www.cheltenhamtownship.org/files/documents/20240312FacilitiesPresentation1740121222031324PM.pdf
Property Maintenance reports, Dec 2023 – May 2025 (filter-room repipe, drain-down, 70+ gutter blocks, full repoint, 8-inch valve, new pump) — Public Affairs Committee agenda packets, e.g. Jan 10 2024: https://www.cheltenhamtownship.org/files/documents/PublicAffairsCommitteeAgenda01-10-24042121010524PM1706.pdf
Parks & Recreation Committee minutes, Sep 9 2015 (underground leak) and May 11 2016 (all 46 returns scoped) — Parks & Recreation Committee agenda archive, 2015–2016
Deed of dedication for the Melrose pool parcel, Board of Commissioners, Dec 17 2025 (Resolution 47-25)
In the Media
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct 2 2026 — "Cheltenham will consider canceling its agreement to replace Conklin Pool": https://www.inquirer.com/news/cheltenham-pool-contract-special-meeting-20261002.html
Glenside Local, Oct 2 2026 — "Cheltenham Township to host special meeting on Oct. 6 to consider terminating the Ground Lease Agreement with Melrose Pool, LLC": https://glensidelocal.com/cheltenham-township-to-host-special-meeting-on-oct-6-to-consider-terminating-the-ground-lease-agreement-with-melrose-pool-llc/
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Petition created on October 6, 2026