The iconic, historic Plunge swimming pool at Mission Beach’s Belmont Park reopened this month amid throwback admission prices, ending — at least for now — a 10-month shutdown triggered by a bitter lease dispute and a series of temporary, city-ordered repairs. To celebrate the long-awaited reopening, visitors were charged 25 cents for admission during the celebratory weekend March 3-4 — the exact price charged when The Plunge opened to the public in 1925. “We had a large turnout on opening weekend, including many San Diego residents and people who grew up swimming at the Plunge who came back after 20 to 30 years,” said Laura Ericson of the Wavehouse Athletic Club’s member services. District 2 City Councilman Kevin Faulconer, long an advocate of Belmont Park’s mission and its rich history, also weighed in on the reopening. “The Plunge is incredibly important and a jewel to our beach communities,” Faulconer said. Still, the question on the minds of many regular visitors and Wavehouse Athletic Club members is when the historic Mission Beach swimming pool will likely be shuttered again for more permanent, expensive fixes. Tom Lochtefeld, the former operator of the Plunge and former master leaseholder of Belmont Park, was forced to close the facility in May because of a roughly 800-percent rent increase — from about $70,000 to $550,000 — demanded by the city as part of its 2000 agreement with Lochtefeld, triggered once rent credits had expired. In addition to the rent increase, a study by the city’s Engineering Department found the Plunge was in need of about $185,000 in temporary repairs to its crumbling roof, among other structural fixes. More permanent repairs were projected at about $1.2 million. Faced with the daunting rent challenge and repair estimates, Lochtefeld was forced to declare bankruptcy in November 2010 and The Plunge was shuttered in May 2011. Belmont Park was placed in the court-appointed receivership of East West Bank after a bankruptcy hearing in July 2011. Now, with temporary roof repairs made in the interim, the hunt continues by East West Bank and the city to secure a new operator who will need to launch into the more permanent repairs of more than a million dollars. Though those repairs will likely mean another closure for swimmers at some point, the roof is again sound, said officials. “The pool looks exactly like it did before it closed, except we emptied the pool and cleaned it out,” Ericson said. The Plunge was opened on July 4, 1925 as one of the two major attractions of what was then the Mission Beach Amusement Center by San Diego businessman John D. Spreckels. His hope was to boost land sales in Mission Beach when the area was uninhabited. When it opened, the Plunge was the largest indoor saltwater pool in the world. Belmont Park eventually fell into disrepair and was closed in 1976, becoming a magnet for transients and unsavory characters. The amusement park got a second chance in the 1980s, thanks to the efforts of a local grassroots community group called “Save the Coaster,” as well as then-City Councilman Mike Gotch. The roller coaster and park reopened in 1990. Still, Belmont Park struggled financially in the early 1990s until Lochtefeld became the operator in the early 2000s. Lochtefeld’s revitalization efforts included the opening of The Wavehouse restaurant and tavern and the addition of the wave simulation machine for bodysurfers and bodyboarders. Meanwhile, Faulconer said he will remain closely involved in the process. “My goal is to assure that it [The Plunge] is open to our families, but there is still a lot of work to do,” said Faulconer. “This is a part of the San Diego fabric and it needs to stay open.”