Chessie looks over renovations at Cheswick Pools and Patios, awaits makeover
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Chessie isn’t going anywhere.
Some people have been curious about the fate of the iconic purple elephant at Cheswick Pools and Patios as the pool display area outside the Pittsburgh Street business has been torn up.
Owners Justin and Debbie Rushin said renovations at the business will continue through the year, including installation of a state-of-the-art, in-ground display pool.
The Rushins said Chessie might be in for a little refurbishing next year after they complete the removal of four pools fronting the business, install an in-ground pool and enlarge and repave the store’s parking lot. Last year, they paved a new 4,000-square-foot parking lot for their work trucks.
“It will be the pool of present,” Justin Rushin said of the new display model that will replace the older models, some of which date back 60 years.
The last remaining pool slated to go out is a wood and vinyl liner built-in that could last another 60 years but doesn’t have the modern amenities.
The newer pools have triple the amount of plumbing and are more energy efficient, according to Rushin. The decade-old models use about $5 to $6 a day in electricity, while the newer ones cost about $1 a day in energy, he said.
The modern display pool will include an automatic pool cover and some as-of-yet-undecided water features. New technologies also will require less chemicals to be used.
While a large purple elephant might seem to be primitive in terms of marketing, the Rushin’s business is anything but. The current in-ground pools, ranging in price from $50,000 to a half-million dollars, are far more sophisticated.
Cheswick Pools and Patios specializes in offering a variety of build-ins, emphasizing water quality to the point where they have a chemical engineer on staff, according to Rushin.
Then there are pool features such as gas-fueled fire bowls and a “negative-edge pool spa,” which is a small spa inside a pool with an edge even with the pool water.
Cheswick pools also offers outdoor furniture, fire tables and an interesting line of cooler and lawn ornaments from Vietnam featuring recycled steel barrels crafted into Volkswagen Beetle bus coolers and other iconic shapes.