The pool in Palmerton Memorial Park would have opened this Saturday, if not for the coronavirus.

Manager Gretchen Laviolette said the pool’s season typically starts on Memorial Day weekend. That May opening was still on track when the Palmerton Memorial Park Association took on pool repairs early this spring.

Laviolette said a “pretty major crack” running down the middle of the pool needed mending. “It was leaking a lot of water,” she said. So the association contracted Lehigh Valley-based Aqua Pools to do the work.

According to an April letter released by the Palmerton Memorial Park Association, the repairs started in March, but the work was temporarily halted because of COVID-19.

When the state began early this month easing some of the pandemic restrictions it implemented in March, repairs to the pool continued. As of last week, gunite had been poured. It takes nearly a month to cure, and then the pool will need to be painted. After that, it will be filled with water and treated, which will take another week.

With that timeline, the pool could be eyeing an early July opening, but that’s only if it’s given the green light by officials.

Laviolette said based on the information she’s heard, the pool wouldn’t be able to open under Gov. Tom Wolf’s yellow phase, the second in his three-tiered restart of the state. Even in the green, she added, new guidelines would need to be adopted to ensure the safety of poolgoers and staff.

“At this point in time, I have no idea what our season would look like if we are able to open,” Laviolette said. She said a final decision might not be made for another month.

As far as the pool’s shortened season goes, Laviolette assured that its board “will look to accommodate the current members to make up for any time that has been lost.” But they don’t yet know what that compensation will look like.

Laviolette thanks residents for the support they’ve shown for the pool and those who run it. “We will do our very best to get the pool open in a timely fashion,” she said, “while maintaining the safety of everybody involved.”

Locally, the Northern Lehigh Swimming Pool Association already announced that the pool in Victory Park won’t open this summer because of the epidemic. The beaches and waters at Beltzville State Park will also be closed until at least June 5.