Delaware Youth Center pool opens after flood

Youth programs relocated to Hortonville

By TOM KANE

CALLICOON, NY — Despite taking a hard hit from the recent floods, the Delaware Youth Center pool opened a few days after the flood waters stopped.

The Center’s main building wasn’t so lucky.

“The shiny hardwood floor was totally ruined and has to be replaced,” said Tess McBeath, center board member. “The electric wires under the floor need to be replaced. We may have to put in a concrete floor instead of our beautiful maple wood floor.” Insurance will only cover the losses to the building and not to anything else, she said. “We don’t know how much we’ll get from the insurance.” Early calculations set the loss at about one quarter of a million dollars.

Youth summer programs which run from 9:00 to noon had to be relocated to the pavilion behind the Hortonville Fire House.

This is the third time that the Delaware Youth Center was flooded in the last 18 months.

The last flood never reached the building. It did this time.

“It was a lot worse than the last flood in April of 2005,” McBeath said. “At that time, we had crater-like holes throughout the grounds but no serious damage to the building. This time, the grounds got a lot of water and we lost the playground equipment and our pavilion, but took a major hit in our building.”

The flood waters came up about six inches into the building, ruining the floor and soiling carpets and linoleum, she said.

“The other big hit was the pool, which was totally swamped and the electric system ruined,” she said. “But the good news is that with a lot of help from volunteers, we cleaned up the pool and put in a new electric system in time to open on July 10.”

The pool programs are still in place, she said, with swimming lessons, open swimming, adult and family swimming. “Our weekend hours for Saturday and Sunday are 12:00 noon to 6:00 p.m.,” she said.

McBeath and her associates on the board had just replaced the pool’s electric system, ruined during the April 2005 storm. “The irony is that we didn’t put the new electric system in until May, thinking that we would avoid the flood season,” she said. “It was only a few weeks old and we lost it again.”

McBeath and the board members were very appreciative of the many volunteers who came to help.

“Men with machines who moved a lot of dirt and debris were a big help this time,” she said.

Another hit was the pavilion. “We hired that out to groups for their picnics and such,” she said. “It was a source of revenue for us. That’s gone too. The cottage for our caretakers has to be rebuilt. When we rebuild, we have to be smart about it and put in flood controls as much as possible.”