Swimming festival in Gersdorf: A look at the future of the summer swimming pool!

Swimming festival in Gersdorf: A look at the future of the summer swimming pool!

The sun is shining over Gersdorf and what do you do in this heat? Of course: think about the swimming lake! Unfortunately, the summer pool has remained closed since the devastating mud flood in late summer 2022, which filled the pool and destroyed the pool technology following a storm. But the summer pool's support association won't let it get them down. That should be on Sunday of next year Swimming festival in the Volkspark attract numerous visitors again to bring the bathroom back to life.

The event takes place in the center of Gersdorf and promises a colorful program for young and old. Among other things, the “Sonnenkinder” daycare center and various activities such as football darts, bubble soccer, pony rides and fire brigade car rides invite you to take part. Mayor Erik Seidel will also be there to present exciting news: he will present the design for the new summer pool. As part of the festival, all proceeds will go to the reconstruction of the pool.

New life for the summer pool

Citizens' patience is required as the grandiose plans to reconstruct and rebuild the summer pool are already in full swing. Discussions with residents about the new building are ongoing, and the necessary measures for the Europe-wide tendering of the planning services have been initiated in advance. According to initial estimates, the planning costs exceed €221,000 net, which makes a call for tenders unavoidable. The entire tender process is expected to last until 2024, and the originally planned construction work could start in the first half of the year, provided all legal requirements are met.
For the renovation, the community was able to acquire over 4.5 million euros in funding from the Free State in order to further advance the reconstruction. Already in 2022 and 2023, over 215,000 euros were invested in preliminary planning costs the community of Gersdorf reported.

Federal funding to help with renovation

Additional impetus could also come from the new call for projects for the energy-efficient renovation of swimming pools and other social facilities, which Federal Construction Minister Klara Geywitz launched. As part of the “Renovation of municipal facilities in the areas of sport, youth and culture” (SJK) program, a total of 400 million euros are available to counteract the backlog of renovations at sports halls and swimming pools. Particular attention is paid to climate-neutral heat supply and water saving in projects such as this DGFDB reported.

It remains exciting to see how the situation around the summer pool will develop. The citizens of Gersdorf can hope for a lot of news, not least at the Badfest, which offers an important platform to inform about the progress of the construction and the upcoming plans. Every step toward renovation brings the community's beloved summer pool a little closer to reopening.