Investment Group To Build Pool At Central Regional, Super Says

BAYVILLE, NJ - Plans for a mammoth wellness center at Central Regional High School have fallen through, but an investor plans to build a swimming pool that will be open to both students and the public, Schools Superintendent Triantafillos Parlapanides said.

The six-lane pool will be located on the old Kraig Estate, between Veterans Parkway and the high school, and will hopefully be completed by November 2019, he said.

Central Regional currently pays $20,000 for students to use an outside pool during swim team season.

"When we get the pool, our students will swim for free as part of the agreement," he said. "It will be a Berkeley community pool and residents can pay to use it."

Residents will pay a flat fee of $15 dollars, senior citizens will pay $10 a month, and both will pay $4 for each one-day swim, Parlapanides said

The investment group will contribute $800,000 and borrow the rest for the pool, he said.

Parlapanides credited Mayor Carmen F. Amato Jr. and the Township Council with making the pool a possibility

" Even better is that we are using no taxpayer money," he said. "It is all from an Investment Group and the town will be able to get taxes and a share of the gross, since it is going to be built on town ground."

The fitness and wellness center would have included an Olympic-size swimming pool, complete gym facilities, cardiac rehab, physical therapy, a therapy pool, a wide variety of fitness classes, personalized health and fitness assessments, wellness programs and lectures, a restaurant, and a daycare center.

Board of Education members back in 2016 approved a $25,0000 feasibility study to determine if building a the multi-million dollar wellness center on the Central Regional High School campus in Bayville would be profitable.

"We simple are not big enough in Berkeley to support it with all its programs," Parlapanides said.

Photo: Patricia A. Miller