Pool employees say the North Bend Municipal Pool still would be held together by duct tape and baling wire, if it weren’t for continuing community support and grants.

City Administrator Jan Willis said the Save Our Pool project benefited greatly by grants from the Coquille Community Tribal Fund and the Ford Family Foundation.

“I think that the Save Our Pool Committee should really be pleased with the fact that we have generated enough revenue to complete phase I after only two years of fundraising,” Willis said. “I think it’s a great accomplishment.”

In September, the Ford Family Foundation gave the Save Our Pool project a $125,000 grant to complete the first phase of construction. It also dared the community to raise more money for the project by putting up a $150,000 challenge grant for the second phase. Locals must match with their own funds. Based in Roseburg, the foundation is a private philanthropic organization.

“We have until August to meet that challenge,” Willis said. She added a total of $345,303 has been raised for both legs of the project. “We are aggressively fundraising so that we can complete phase II.”

She said that leg of the pool project, which reads like a wish list, is an attempt to meet community needs and desires. She noted that community members who later made up the Save Our Pool Committee identified those needs, such as a therapy pool, when they first met.

Committee Chairman Tom Hibbert said the group is working on fundraising and plans to hold special promotions at pizza restaurants.

Hibbert said the North Bend Municipal Pool is worth fighting for because it also draws swimmers from outside of the county, and it’s one of the few recreational centers in the area. He said he’s heard a number of stories from people who fondly remember learning to swim here.

“It’s a user-friendly kind of pool,” Hibbert said, adding he likes Mingus Park Pool in Coos Bay, as well. “Both pools are like two jewels in a crown.”