BANGOR – Receiving an early Christmas present that is expected to last for years to come, supporters of renovations to Bangor’s Dakin Pool announced Friday several donations that will help bring the project closer to reality.

Coca-Cola Bottling of Bangor will donate $2,000 each year for five years, while the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office has pledged to provide inmates to do work expected to save thousands of dollars, supporters said during a press conference held in the office of Sheriff Glenn Ross.

Local architects and engineers CES, Ames A/E and David Merritt have donated time to design plans for the new pool house.

The pool built nearly 50 years ago had been languishing in what one Bangor city councilor described as “benign neglect,” and the city had planned to close it. But the grass-roots effort by Friends of Dakin Pool has helped to save the pool near Broadway Park on the city’s east side, although about $153,000 will have to be raised.

“We’re hopeful that this is a real part of a new effort to redevelop that whole parcel of land right off Stillwater Avenue,” Friends of Dakin Pool member and former city Councilor Joe Baldacci said during the press conference.

The city of Bangor has pledged $30,000 in goods and services for the project, and, earlier this fall, The Home Depot and Dakin Pool supporters built and painted picnic tables for the pool’s park.

The group has an ambitious plan to have the money raised by spring and beginning construction a little later in the year. The pool will remain open during construction.

For the jail, the project offers another way to provide public service at a public saving. Inmates provide the services and earn “good time,” one day off their sentence for every two days they work, Ross said. With the jail regularly crowded – it averages about 165 inmates but is licensed to house 136 inmates – the good time frees cell space and reduces the need for alternate housing at $100 a day or more.

Ross also said it helps inmates contribute to society, adding a sense of accomplishment. Last year, inmates performed $416,328 in work inside the jail and in county communities.

The jail regularly uses inmates to help out with community projects in the county, from painting buildings to cleaning up roads and cemeteries. Ross said next year’s agenda is full, but the county will block off some time for this worthwhile project.

“It’s really for hundreds of kids on this side of Bangor to use,” he said.