Looking back: Sandy Beach and Shenandoah’s attempts to build pools (Part 3)
SUBMITTED PHOTO / FRANK SHATALSKY - This undated photo shows Sandy Beach on a quiet day.
By Kaylee Lindenmuth | [email protected]
Editor’s Note: The following is the third in a multi-part series recounting the history of Shenandoah’s efforts to create a community swimming pool from the 1950s through the 1990s, including the former Sandy Beach Recreation Area. Part Three details the Sandy Beach Recreation Area from its opening until its closure in the 1990s. Read Part Two here.
SHENANDOAH – The bathhouse was built and ready for the swimming season by February of 1972. With the facilities constructed and an operating permit obtained, Shenandoah had, securely, its own picturesque recreation and swimming area — Sandy Beach.
This time, though, it faced challenges differing greatly from its bureaucratic battles with Harrisburg for the prior few years.
The opening of the facility was delayed until early June for repairs, a result of weather conditions causing damage to the fence. The basin of the pool had to be drained and cleaned, and sand replaced as well.
Shortly after season’s opening that year, in June of 1972, Tropical Storm Agnes wreaked havoc on Schuylkill County and the northeast. The Sandy Beach facility would not be spared, as waters crested above its banks, washing away the beach itself and spreading debris throughout the park.
Eighty-five tons of sand was trucked in, according to the July 7, 1972 edition of the Evening Herald, which added that damages had yet to be estimated by then.
The June 24, 1972 edition shows photos of the flooding:
Metro Litwak told the Herald on July 18, 1972 he expected the park to open the following weekend, outlining repair work at the facility.
“We’ve done a lot of work there due to the damages caused by tropical storm Agnes. We completely drained the pool but had much difficulty because there is still more water coming in than going out. We’ve put in 140 feet of cement walks, 50 foot retaining wall at the breast area, the whole fence taken down and 32 posts reset in cement, and the entire beach redone with 117 ton of new sand,” he told the Herald.
That wouldn’t cut it. The flood caused damage to the breast of the damn, bathhouse, beach, and picnic grounds, and repair work would continue for the next two years, delaying the opening of both the ’73 and ’74 swimming seasons. Once again, the Shenandoah Recreation Authority found itself at the mercy of the state and federal government, applying for thousands in grant funds to complete the repairs.
“This is the only place in Shenandoah where hundreds of people can get together in the summer to relax and have a good time,” Litwak to the Herald on Feb. 16, 1973.
Though, fun was still to be had when the facility opened for the summer. Photos in the Herald’s July 20, 1973 edition show kids having fun, adding that attendance averages were around 225 per day:
Sandy Beach opened in July in both ’73 and ’74.
As repairs were needed, vandals weren’t helping.
“There have been instances of damage due to vandalism since last summer,” Litwak told the Herald on June 8, 1973. “Shingles on the concession stand were broken. Electrical wires were damaged and bullet holes in one of the bathhouse doors, presumably from a rifle shot, splintered the inside of the door.”
In April of 1974, the facility was vandalized again. Litwak came and noticed a hole was cut in the roof of the concession stand, and the interior was ransacked. A payphone was smashed, ceiling boards hung down, and a wire gate door was removed from its hinges.
“Why would anyone want to do something like this?” Litwak said to the Herald on April 17, 1974.
The next season, weather conditions hampered repair and preparation work and the facility was unable to open until late August.
One Heights resident, Paul Franks, took to a letter to the Herald’s editor on August 15, 1975 criticizing the project, saying “this endless ‘attempt’ to give the good people of the Shenandoah area a swimming and recreational facility has fallen on its face.”
“Don’t the powers to be realize that the problem that occurred this year which kept the pool from being opened with happen again and again?” he asked.
In the very next day’s edition, on Saturday, August 16, it was announced the pool would open after beach widening, dam cleaning, and sand spreading had been completed. Repairs to the picnic area would be done after the swimming season, the Herald wrote.
Good news came in time for the 1976 swimming season. Thanks to a pair of grants — a $60,000 state grant and $15,000 federal grant — the repair work was done and the facility was renovated and landscaped. Originally planned to open in time for Memorial Day weekend, the facility opened on Saturday, June 12, according to the Herald.
That season, attendance was “booming,” Litwak told the Herald on June 30.
The next year, Sandy Beach would open in time for Memorial Day, and would receive a donation of a sliding board from the Damato American Legion. A newspaper clipping shared by current Shenandoah councilman J.P. Dombrosky in response to this story shows him at the age of five, and two other kids, enjoying the slide in 1978:
That year, the facility opened in June after fence repairs were made, thanks to financial assistance from Shenandoah Borough Council.
That same year, swimming lessons were provided by lifeguards at the facility, Ellen Sakowsky, David Dudish, George Kuzma, and Len Anderson.
The next few years for Sandy Beach were relatively uneventful. Newspaper archives tell of opening dates and show photos of pool-goers escaping 90 degree temperatures to cool off in the mountain spring water.
During the 1980s, Shenandoah area residents young and old ventured to the recreational facility, not only to swim and cool off, but for free summer lunches, provided by the Shenandoah Valley School District.
In 1985, though, vandals returned. $2,000 in damage was done in May of 1985 according to the Hazleton Standard~Speaker. Several juveniles were charged with criminal mischief and criminal trespass for the vandalism, after they smashed a bathhouse door and drinking fountain and damaged toilets and a window. Life preservers were swiped and picnic tables were flipped as well.
The next year, Sandy Beach celebrated two decades in operation.
A few years later, prior to the 1990 swimming season and like the predecessor Shenandoah Heights Pool, the concession stand was set aflame. The stand, Litwak told the Herald previously, was built with century-old lumber from the former Reading Railroad station in Shenandoah.
The fire, which destroyed the stand and all its contents, was ruled suspicious and three boys were suspected of setting the fire, according to the April 3, 1990 edition of the Standard~Speaker.
Despite the fire, the facility opened for the 1990 season on schedule in mid-June. The same year, a $1 Million loan was received by the Municipal Authority to install the water tank that sits on the site today. Construction of said tank delayed the opening of the swimming season for 1991.
Litwak told the Pottsville Republican in 1992 the facility needed $8,000 in donations to rebuild the concession stand. According to the article, the loss of the concession stand led to decreased funds for the Shenandoah Recreation Authority and may have contributed to declining interest at the facility.
“People won’t come up with their kids because they can’t eat,” Litwak told the Republican. “It’s important to put the stand up. You can’t make money on swimming.”
In 1993, debates began about the future of the facility. In January, Litwak, 76 at the time, who’d led the facility since its inception, retired as chair of the recreation authority. Litwak often worked hands-on at the facility on a volunteer basis.
Once again, the facility opened to swimmers in July of ’93. William Grutza now led the recreation authority, as the facility attempted to find another volunteer the likes of Litwak to maintain the facility. The facility also had overdue bills at the time, according to the Republican.
Part Four will outline the demise of Sandy Beach and the attempt to construct a pool to replace it.
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