07/27/2026
Saving the Berlin, WI Aquatic Center - History
The long history of all of the attempts to save/repair the Berlin Aquatic Center (heretofore BAC) began quite naturally at the Parks and Recreation Commission for the City of Berlin.
Every year the Parks and Recreation Commission would take reports of the repairs needed on the pool, the difficulty of locating needed parts due to the age of the pool, the sinking corner issue, and needed replacement of items. Each year the prospects of the pool were grim, but city staff was able to piece together enough parts for repairs to get the pool open. Then again, each year, the period of accessibility was also decreasing due to weather, needed repairs, and staffing issues.
When it became apparent that we might have 1-2 years left on the life of the pool, a subcommittee was formed on the P&R to specifically address how to save the pool. This was headed by Victoria Hill along with long-standing pool proponent, Bobbie Erdmann and many others. When the Subcommittee was formed in the May 2023. This committee was structured to include members of the community and thus included citizens and their efforts and ideas.
This initial period was fraught with crossed purposes between the City of Berlin, the citizens of Berlin, and the “Save the Pool” committee. Of note, citizens would go directly to the city to offer assistance, and be turned away. When attempting to donate funds to the Save the Pool committee, they were informed that the city attorney had determined that donated funds to the city could NOT be designated solely for the pool. Both the turn-aways and the lack of ability to guarantee the direct use of donated monies created deep hesitancy from the public to donate. In addition, the city could not accept partial repair offers (for instance, fixing only the pool surface, or a room) for the legal reasoning that taking donations of work from local businesses or companies could then be seen as a Quid Pro Quo situation when those companies came to the city for licenses and permits. So, what seemed like a straightforward way to get companies to do the work at expense or free turned into a denial from the city attorney. Their ONLY solution was the governmental way of going to bid and asking someone to do the whole job. To this effect, the P&R commission did put the repair of the pool out for bid and received quotes from four different companies. You can find the pool repair quote on the City of Berlin website.
https://cityofberlin.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/2026/06/compress-2024-08-28-Berlin-Family-Aquatic-Center-Ramaker-Report-60575.pdf
Following these challenges, the STP subcommittee decided to dissolve in favor of a non-governmental 501(c)3, headed by Erika Berkshire and Ammanda Garza, and joined by Victoria Hill, and Michele Cassidy along with others who popped in and out. This would solve the “use of funds donated” issue. After a year of operation, the “Friends of the Berlin Aquatic Center” were able to apply for their raffle license and began fundraising in earnest.
The FotBAC was attempting to grasp how the pool was run, who was in charge of what, how items were sold and tracked, costs of operations, attendance, and everything essentially pool related. The scope of their efforts began to grow quite wide. Several fundraising attempts were completed including fairs, booths, mailers, parades, newspaper articles, free-money searches (grants, awards) etc. To name them all would be to enumerate three years of effort. Despite these efforts, we still hear that many citizens have no idea anything is being done about the pool. But in short, every effort has been made from rack sales to requests for pledges to cans for donations and grant searches.
In 2025, the City of Berlin (CoB) was undergoing a financial audit and realized that keeping the pool open was untenable, despite the clear desire to keep it open, and made the difficult decision to close it up. An attempt was made by the city to hand the pool over to the FotBAC who declined due to inability to manage such an endeavor. They also held public meetings which were heavily attended by the citizens of Berlin.
Where are we right now? After four years of work, the FotBAC have approximately 15K collected in small donations (this includes expenditures for events) and have collected almost 200K in pledges. However, and this is important to note, due to the length of the struggle, many of the institutions who previously pledged are looking to be released from their pledge. Leadership of the group has been passed over to Victoria Hill, and the scope of efforts was decreased to fundraising for repairs and upkeep. A small group of dedicated people still meet monthly to work on the goals.
The CoB now has an RFP (Request for Proposal) that is due to be returned by September of 2026. The FotBAC will be basing their forward direction on those returned responses. If someone chooses to repair or replace the pool, any funds they have will go towards that effort. If the city destroys the pool and replaces it with something else, donations will need to be determined as to their best (and originally intended) use.
