Litchfield Park District Pool Opens for Season With Low Diving Board Closed

Article Summary: The Litchfield Park District pool opened Saturday, May 23, 2026, but its low diving board is closed for the entire season, commissioners were told June 3. A proposed fundraiser to help replace the board was tabled because too few commissioners were present to act.

Pool Season Key Points:

The pool opened May 23; attendance was slow the first weekend because of weather and improved over Memorial Day.

The low dive is closed for the season, and the minutes record that no complaints about it have been reported.

Vice President Katie Cross floated a comedy night at the center as a fundraiser toward replacement, but the discussion was tabled for lack of commissioners.

The Montgomery County Sharks swim club is expected to leave the Litchfield pool after this season for a pool in Hillsboro.

LITCHFIELD — The Litchfield Park District pool opened for the season on Saturday, May 23, 2026, and will operate all summer without its low diving board, commissioners were told at their regular monthly meeting on Wednesday, June 3, 2026.

Under the Pool committee heading, the minutes record that the opening Saturday and Sunday were slow because of weather, that Memorial Day drew “a good crowd,” and that the low dive “is closed for the season.” The record adds that no complaints about the diving board have been reported. Private swimming lessons were to begin during the month.

Fundraiser Idea Tabled

The board took up “a possible fundraiser for the pool diving board replacement” as a New Business item. Cross suggested hosting a comedy night at the center, and the minutes note that other ideas were welcome. No motion followed. The discussion “was also tabled due to the low number of commissioners attending this meeting,” the minutes state.

Four of seven commissioners were present — Heyen, Cross, Kulick and Bergschneider — with Bates, Taylor and Cearlock absent. Bates chairs the Pool committee and was not at the meeting; the minutes do not record who delivered the pool report in his absence.

The cost the fundraiser would be aimed at does not appear anywhere in the June record. It appears in the May 6, 2026, minutes, which the board formally approved at this meeting: those minutes put the replacement price of the low dive at $50,000.00 and record a motion by Kulick, seconded by Cross, “to defer the purchase of a new low dive board until next year.” The May minutes also indicate the district had been pursuing a temporary repair through a sheet metal contractor, and that if the repair could not be made, the board would be out for the season. That is what has now happened.

Swim Club Signals Move to Hillsboro

The June report also flagged a coming change for one of the pool’s regular users. The Montgomery County Sharks have started practicing and will host their meets at the Litchfield pool “as in the past,” the minutes state, adding: “This will probably be their last year at our pool, as they plan to move to Hillsboro’s pool when it opens.”

The minutes offer no further detail on the Hillsboro facility, its opening date, or what the loss of the club would mean for Litchfield’s pool revenue or meet schedule.

Pool Money in the May Books

The financial reports accepted at the same meeting show the pool driving most of the district’s non-Kilton revenue in May. Total pool receipts for the month were $24,875.25 — $45.00 in swim lessons and passes and $24,830.25 in the general pool receipts account.

That larger figure is not all gate money. The Corporate Fund deposit detail records a single $13,380.00 deposit on May 19, 2026, entered under the name “TIF Money” and coded to pool receipts, with a memo that reads, in truncated form, “Meant to be used in the purchase of …” The remaining $11,450.25 came in as deposits the register labels simply as pool income, dated May 19 and May 26. The minutes contain no discussion of the TIF deposit, and no document in the packet completes the memo.

On the expense side, Pool Maintenance & Operations ran $5,539.65 for the month, including $100.00 in new pool equipment and $300.00 in training. By comparison, the district recorded $5,325.00 in pool receipts and $8,823.35 in pool maintenance and operations in May 2025, when the season began later in the month.