Legion Pool is in bad shape, but renovating it would still be less expensive in the short- and long-term than building a new pool, according to documents Flagpole obtained from an open-records request.

Legion Pool costs $112,105 to operate annually, including $45,000 for maintenance and repairs and $10,000 for water alone. The proposed new pool at Lake Herrick, although only half the size, would cost marginally less to run: $96,258 to open eight hours a day for four months or $136,000 for six months, according to Associate Director for Facilities Keith Wenrich. Assistant Director of Campus Planning Lara Mathes described those estimates as "very preliminary" in an email.

At that rate, it could take a century to pay back the cost of building a new pool with savings on running it. Combined with the relative cheapness of renovating Legion Pool—$490,000 versus quoted figures of $2.3 million and $2.6 million for a new pool—the estimates raise further questions about the cost-effectiveness of new construction, especially at a time when higher education faces ongoing budget cuts.

"Why spend two-and-a-half million dollars on a new pool and destroy a pool that's worth $3 million—that's what it's insured for—when the regents are trying to get them to cut 1.5 percent?" Legion Pool booster Grady Thrasher says. "There's not really a good dollars-and-cents reason for doing this at all."

Tim Burgess, vice president for finance and administration, has not responded to questions about pool costs, but administrators have emphasized that the new pool will be paid for with reserves, student fees and donations to athletics, not tax dollars or tuition, which fund expenses like faculty and staff salaries. University officials cited structural problems and leaks when they asked the Georgia Historic Preservation Division for an opinion on demolishing Legion Pool. The state declined to give its blessing.

"The photographs provided do not demonstrate conditions of severe deterioration or existing repair needs," Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer David Crass wrote to UGA on July 31. "The narrative indicates renovation costs of $490,000 but provides no context, including why it has been determined to be a not cost-effective candidate for repair, and considering reference to future construction of a pool elsewhere on campus, how repair costs compare to the cost of the replacement facility. No context has also been provided regarding why demolition of a historic resource is consistent with the campus physical master plan and the post-demolition use of the site as green space has been determined its 'highest and best use.' Additionally, no information has been provided regarding alternatives considered to retain Legion Pool and why demolition was considered the preferred alternative or other alternatives were considered not feasible."

There are other issues to consider besides money, UGA President Michael Adams told WGAU 1340 AM last week. Lake Herrick is closer to other recreational facilities, and the Legion Pool property off Lumpkin street is valuable long-term for residential and academic uses, he said. (The plan is to turn it into green space for the time being.) Legion Pool drops three inches a day, leaking 24,000 gallons of chlorinated water into Tanyard Creek. And parts for the 77-year-old pool aren't available. But the math is only part of the decision, he said. "The long-term upkeep costs are less," he said. "Whether anybody's put a stiff pencil to those 20-year costs, I don't know."

The University System Board of Regents, in a preliminary vote earlier this month, told its staff to prepare more detailed financial information on demolishing and replacing Legion Pool. The board is scheduled to vote on UGA's plan in September or October, when it will meet in Athens.

Sara Baker, another opponent of demolishing Legion Pool, questioned the environmental rationale for a new pool. Chlorine evaporates quickly, so the environmental impact of leaks is far less than demolition, she says. A November audit by pool consultants Counsilman-Hunsaker found environmental hazards like lead paint and asbestos that would have to be mitigated. Baker pointed to renovations of historic pools in Austin, TX and New York City as proof that it can be done—especially in a town with its own college engineering department.

"It is an axiom of environmental stewardship that it's always greener to renovate than to build," she says.

The pool audit shows just how poor Legion Pool's condition is. "As with other pools of this age, they are facing physical obsolescence," the report says. "Of foremost concern is the structural condition of the pool and facility. Significant cracks have been observed by the staff in the pool structure that reveal themselves through the plaster." Auditors did not recommend demolition, though; instead, they urged that "all the recommended repairs, replacements and renovations be considered and implemented" to bring the pool up to code and modern standards.

Since taking over the pool from the City of Athens and the American Legion in the 1970s, UGA has replaced original tiles with plaster, installed drains, replaced sand in filter tanks, part of a deck and a gutter drain, and patched and refinished several sections of plaster along expansion joints. That's not enough, though, Thrasher says. He thinks UGA has intentionally allowed the pool to deteriorate so it had an excuse to demolish the pool and build something else on the land.

"They haven't done anything, really, but patch a bunch of cracks for six years," he says. "They've wanted to get rid of the pool for about the same amount of time."

The audit lays out a road map for repairing Legion Pool. The biggest expenses would be replacing the pool floor for $320,000 and installing a new filter and pipes for $85,000. Seventeen other, smaller repairs are also recommended. Counsilman-Hunsaker says those repairs "address the physical obsolescence of a pool built in the 1930s, as well as safety, and addresses items that are required by the State of Georgia and the Clarke County health department." They should be done all at once, the consultants say, to save money and because some are dependent on others.