A team of Carbon Career and Technical Institute students will come up with ideas to revitalize Lansford’s defunct pool complex.

A team of five students from Jeremy Pease’s Drafting and Design Technology class toured the complex on Feb. 19, taking measurements for the landscape design and beginning to plot ideas.

Gwyneth Collevechio from the Friends of Lansford Recreation reached out to the school about three weeks ago, looking for ideas to repurpose “the former pool site into a new community-focused venue,” Pease said in an email last week.

“With the community pool being closed for over a decade due to a significant leak that made sustaining its existence nearly impossible, the (Friends of Lansford Recreation) asked us for assistance with cost-effective land usage ideas,” Pease said.

Taking the design lead will be CCTI student Adam Gardiner from Panther Valley, Pease said. Others on the team are Stacy Bos and Jared Mantilla, Jim Thorpe; Gavin Smale, Palmerton, and Edison Mitchell, Panther Valley, he said.

“Last week, we went to the site to take measurements so that the students can put together a site map showing the current layout,” Pease said.

“Once completed, they’ll continue to come up with a few different plans to present,” he said.

Collevechio said the nonprofit Friends group met and decided to get started on a site plan for the pool complex, which has sat idle for many years.

Collevechio, who also serves on Lansford Borough Council, said that the borough wanted to get a grant for a park planner.

Last summer former Council President Bruce Markovich suggested seeking a grant from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which would fund half the cost of a consultant. The borough could then use the money from the “Pool CD,” a fund with about $43,000 in it for the other half, he had said.

Collevechio explained that they grew tired of waiting for a grant and weren’t sure how plans would go with the change in leadership on council.

“We decided to try this way,” she said.