An outpouring of donations and grants is pushing a community campaign to upgrade Easling Pool at the Grand Traverse County Civic Center near its finish line. County Parks and Recreation commissioners received an update on the project at their meeting Thursday – and also gave the green light to Norte Youth Cycling to start pursuing grant funding for several bicycle-related improvements at the park.

The nonprofit Friends of Easling Pool launched a $625,000 fundraising campaign in August to upgrade the Civic Center’s pool facility. Planned renovations to the pool include a new pool liner, ultraviolet water sanitizing system, new air- handling equipment, new decking, and high-efficiency lighting. The planned facelift comes after nearly five decades of operations at Easling Pool.

“While the pool is dearly loved by many, after nearly 50 years of use it’s just time to make improvements and bring it up to current standards,” Friends of Easling Pool President Bridget Thuente said at the campaign launch.

Parks and Recreation Director Kristine Erickson told parks commissioners Thursday that over $500,000 has been raised for the campaign since the launch. Several major community donations have boosted fundraising efforts, including a $70,000 challenge grant from Rotary Charities of Traverse City, over $42,000 from SwingShift and the Stars, a $25,000 Mahogany Foundation grant, and – most recently – a two percent grant of $35,000 from the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. According to Friends of Easling Pool, over 250 donors have contributed to the campaign.

“That leaves us only $125,000 to raise for the pool,” Erickson said. “We are so close that I just want to ask the community to help us make it happen.”

Parks staff hope to raise the full amount in time to be able to complete the pool renovations this summer during a normal period when the pool would be closed for annual maintenance – “somewhere between July and August,” Erickson said. Renovations are expected to take two weeks. If funds beyond $625,000 are raised – online donations are being accepted here – those monies will go toward additional pool improvements such as locker room, carpet and maintenance upgrades.

Erickson said parks staff are preparing to meet with county legal counsel to prepare a process for going out to bid for construction, assuming the remaining campaign balance can be raised. She said the county would work with experts in pool improvements to ensure the project was a success. “This is only going to happen once in our lifetime,” she said. “We’re getting the right people on board.”

Several other improvements could also be coming both near and within the Civic Center as part of a larger citywide project to improve biking and walking routes for students to local K-8 schools. Federal funding channeled through the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) – with support from the Michigan Fitness Foundation – for the Safe Routes to School program could bring up to $2 million in infrastructure improvements surrounding 10 Traverse City schools by 2020, or up to $200,000 per school. Two eligible schools, Oak Park and Eastern, are in close proximity to the Civic Center.

Ty Schmidt of Norte Youth Cycling, which is helping spearhead Safe Routes to School and also headquarters its offices and clubhouse at the Civic Center, explained to Parks and Recreation commissioners that planned nearby infrastructure improvements would benefit the park. Those include upgrades at Front Street’s intersections with Garfield Avenue and Fair Street, as well as sidewalk improvements on Fair Street and Civic Center Drive. Additional program funding could also be available for other upgrades at the park itself – with Schmidt seeking commission approval Thursday to pursue such funding.

One project would involve repurposing the often-empty parking lot near the former Kids Kove playground site along with nearby paths into a “traffic garden” with mock street layouts and intersections to teach young cyclists the rules of the road in a safe environment. “These traffic gardens are happening across the U.S., and I think from an educational standpoint it’s huge,” Schmidt said. “It’s something that instead of talking about bike safety, we can take kids and run them through this course in a safe way.”

Norte also hopes to add safety improvements to the Civic Center’s south entrance to protect walkers and cyclists from vehicular traffic entering the park, and to add a yellow stripe around the entire Civic Center park path to clearly delineate a route for cyclists. This would help avoid conflicts between bikers and walkers on the path and teach younger riders trail etiquette, Schmidt said.

Commissioners gave Schmidt approval to apply for grant funding for the improvements by a March 7 deadline. “All of this hopefully will be funded through Safe Routes to School,” Schmidt said. “We’re not here asking for any money. We’re here to do all the work and to add value to the Civic Center.” If Norte is approved for grant funding, final project plans would come back to commissioners for review and approval, with construction potentially beginning in 2020.