This isn’t a time of the year when Altoona residents are thinking about swimming in outdoor venues, unless they’re reminiscing about the warm-weather months just past and the fun they had at the pool, pools, beach or beaches of their choice.

However, October, November and December are months when this city’s officials, like officials in many other municipalities large and small, are devoting much brainstorming to water-recreation costs — including for swimming — and to possible non-aquatic recreation projects that also might be budgeted for the coming fiscal year, in this case 2025.

A completed and approved municipal budget for the new year, covering the full range of Altoona’s operations, is to be in place before the new year arrives on Jan. 1.

For the city of Altoona, regarding the proposed 2025 recreation considerations, Prospect Pool is a topic of considerable concern amid the full budget-preparation exercise.

First, there is the money the city’s coffers pump into the pool’s operation. The city provided $243,000 this year, while total income was just $57,000, derived mostly from concessions ($28,000) and ticket sales ($18,000).

It is estimated that the city, under its 2025 spending plan, will have to budget about $150,000 to keep the pool in operation, while hoping that the pool doesn’t produce a revenue loss anywhere near the $186,000 recorded this year.

Next, attendance (use of the pool) must remain a constant concern. Total attendance this year was 8,463; the most recent pre-Covid-19 year when attendance dipped into the 8,000s was 2014.

Pre-Covid, pool users totaled 11,900 in 2019; 15,700 in 2018; and 16,000 in 2017, according to an article in the Mirror’s Sept. 25 edition.

The city must strive constantly to keep the pool as a place where people young and not-so-young enjoy what it has to offer, including beyond the actual swimming itself.

The relevant question is what the pool needs in terms of additional attractions to make it more inviting for potential users.

In addition, there is the issue of safety and security; as the Sept. 25 article noted, prior to the city taking over the pool’s operation from the Central Blair Recreation and Park Commission in 2023, the pool had developed what has been described as a “rough reputation” due to security issues.

That kind of reputation must not be tied to the pool ever again. The city must take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that.

Beyond the above classifications of concern, there is the issue of the pool’s long-term future. However, renovation or replacement, full or partial, won’t be necessary if meager attendance does not justify major actions and the financial expenditures that will go along with them.

Continued meager attendance will spell death for Prospect Pool.

Quoting from the Sept. 25 Mirror article, “the pool remains in good enough condition to operate next year in much the same fashion as this year — although well-publicized concerns over the long-term fate of the old and fragile facility remain unresolved, according to officials.”

But logical ideas that have been mentioned by council members and others revolve around features that will appeal to young children, such as spray park fixtures, and accessibility improvements such as a slide and a climber.

These last three months of 2024 will be important guides about whether optimism or pessimism will dominate the pool’s future.