It's a simple concept: Dig a hole, fill it with water and invite people to come in and splash around. • Ninety years ago, that's pretty much what Dormont's Andrew Philp did. He used rocks to dam a creek, and the wading pool that formed became Dormont Pool. • But operating a community pool these days is not quite as simple as it was when Mr. Philp was around. • The Dormont Pool of today -- with its slide, snack bar and, new this year, wireless Internet -- is a vastly more complex and far more expensive operation than Mr. Philp's makeshift town swim hole. • It's the same tale of high costs at community pools all around Pittsburgh, its suburbs and neighboring counties. When lifeguards blow their whistles next week to announce the start of swim season, it's usually thanks to extensive expensive repair work and a community that views its pool as a valued -- if costly -- amenity.

In Dormont, Mr. Philp's "dam it up and let it be" approach worked for a few years, but then the borough spent $7,000 in 1922 to build a larger dam for a swim area and an ice skating rink. A small wooden bathhouse also was built.

By 1929, the borough had spent another $15,000 to line the pool with concrete and build a three-floor bathhouse.

Generations of Dormont residents, including Thomas Herrman, 58, learned to swim in the enormous pool, one of the largest in Western Pennsylvania.

His father swam in the pool when it still had a muddy bottom, and when Mr. Herrman was growing up, the Dormont Pool was where his family spent the summer.

"We came to the pool everyday," he said. "That was the thing to do."

Pictures on the wall of the bathhouse and on the town's website show black-and-white photos of a packed pool, with swimmers splashing and sunbathers sitting on the grassy sides of the football field-size facility.

The pool remained a popular summer destination through the decades, but over time the borough neglected repairs and the price of opening each year started to inch up. In 2006, the borough announced the pool was not going to open.

Residents, including Mr. Herrman, had to decide: Is the pool worth saving?

Derry Borough asked that same question this spring about its pool. The Derry Area Recreation Board, which ran the pool for years, announced it couldn't manage another year footing the $70,000 cost of operating it, council President Allen Skopp said.

During a good summer, when the weather is warm and the pool is crowded, it's still a struggle for most community pools to recoup the costs -- staff, chemicals, maintenance and repairs -- with ticket prices and snack bar sales. Unusually cool temperatures last summer, for example, meant higher costs for most pools in the area because attendance was down.

The strain of pouring thousands into running a pool while getting little in return made it impossible for Derry to keep its pool open.

With the rec board giving up, the borough needed $15,000 to open the pool. Officials called a special meeting April 15, and more than 50 people came to plead for the pool to remain open. Some said they would do the work themselves, others said they would help raise funds.

The facility was saved when the neighboring Ligonier Valley YMCA volunteered to run the pool this summer, giving Derry time to plan for its future.

Derry's pool situation was dire and complicated by a change in who was running it, but high costs and worries about not being able to maintain aquatic facilities are common in communities.

In December, North Fayette supervisors adopted a $9.56 million budget that raised the property tax rate from 3.2 to 3.9 mills. The 0.7-mill tax increase was partly due to an $80,000 repair needed to fix a leak in the community's Hankey Farms pool.

The repair, which will be done in the fall, is expensive. But repair work of some degree is done most years at the Hankey Farms pool, said Bob Brozovich, the township's recreation director.

Frequent repairs, which are necessary for all pools, especially older ones, make community pools an expensive asset. Still, Mr. Brozovich said, people believe it's important to have a community pool.

"I think we are in the business of providing services for the residents, and I think that's why we do what we can to keep the pool operational," he said.

In Shaler, township manager Timothy Rogers is quick to say that the pool, which is heavily used by residents and nonresidents, does not make money.

"The pool really is a money loser," he said. "On a good year, you might break even."

Shaler regularly schedules repairs to its pool because it's a resource for the community.

"It's no different from a library or anything where it is an asset that improves the quality of life in your community," he said.

The quality of life factor is something that Lisa Blaney-Stewart, a borough council member and chairwoman of Bellevue's parks and recreation committee, thinks about when it comes to the Bellevue pool.

"It's a community experience, but every year, it's a struggle to open it," she said.

Running the pool costs about $100,000 a year, she said, and the borough gets back $15,000 at most in revenue. The town pool is scheduled to open, but with needed repair work and hiring and management difficulties, the decision was particularly fraught this year, she said.

Since costs have gotten so high, Bellevue is trying something new this summer -- hiring a pool management company. Bellevue resident Alisa Scioscia runs AMS SwimAmerica Inc., which manages two private pools and two community pools, all in Allegheny County. Now that her company is assuming management in Bellevue, she said she will look at ways to make it more cost-effective, such as adjusting operating hours.

There are creative ways to add revenue and cut costs, she said, but a lot of communities get stuck in maintaining the status quo with their pools.

"[Pools] are not there to make money. They are there to offer a service to the community," she said. "And because that is their mentality, they may give up the ship."

But she said ways exist to operate efficiently. Some communities have started to aggressively pursue cost-saving measures, such as Crafton, where manager Douglas Sample said officials are not trying to make money, they are trying not to lose it.

In Mt. Lebanon, too, the recreation department has committed to significantly decreasing operating costs for the facility. For the first time this year, the department sold advance passes at a discount, recreation director David Donnellan said, in an attempt to jump start revenues.

The rec department has been trying to decrease net costs over the past few years. Last summer, with its unusually cool weather, threw numbers off and resulted in a $79,254 net cost. In 2008, that number was $10,870 and in 2007, it dropped all the way to $254. The 2010 budget projects a $26,320 net cost.

"We are hoping for hot, dry weather," Mr. Donnellan said.

He's not alone. It's a common refrain among those responsible for managing community pools and their finances.

One day earlier this month when it was too cold for T-shirts, let alone a bathing suit, workers completed repairs on the mammoth Dormont Pool, preparing to open it this weekend.

Four years ago, when members of the community had to decide whether the pool was worth saving, they decided it was.

"It's a jewel, and to have to let it go, that would have been a tragedy," said Mr. Herrman, board vice president of a group that calls itself Friends of Dormont Pool. Through fundraisers, the group has generated about $85,000, helping to offset the costs of keeping the pool open.

In 2009, a tough financial year for most pools, the net cost, factoring in revenues and expenditures, of running the Dormont facility was $82,175, and in 2008, the net cost of running the pool was $52,698. The 2010 budget calls for a net cost of $64,200.

For repair work such as sandblasting, the pool has received grants totaling $650,000 over the past few years from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

Officials from a few towns, such as Crafton and Mt. Lebanon, said they are looking for grants to help pay for pool repair costs in the coming years. Mt. Lebanon Commissioner Raja said the town is studying options for the future, such as sharing pool finances with a neighboring community or with the school district.

In preparation for this year's opening, Dormont installed a new sound system and wireless Internet. As Friends of Dormont Pool contemplates the future, they hope it includes teaming with a corporate partner to support a "green" pool.

Mr. Herrman is helping to get the pool ready for opening day Saturday.

"There's nothing better than a dip in the pool on a hot day," he said.

For information on a pool, including opening day, admission costs and other details, go to the community's website.

Looking for more from the Post-Gazette? Join PG+, our members-only web site. You'll get exclusive sports content, opinion, financial information, discounts from retailers and restaurants, and more. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.