Two senators have secured $500,000 for repairs and renovations to the historic Victoria Pool at Saratoga Spa State Park ahead of its full-time opening on Saturday. State senators Kathy Marchione (R-Halfmoon) and Betty Little (R-Queensbury) will join Louise Goldstein and Andrew Jennings – the co-founders of Save the Victoria Pool Society – at 10:30 a.m. Thursday on Roosevelt Drive in the park to announce the half-million dollars in funding from this year’s New York State budget. The money will be used to make improvements to the Victoria Pool and promote the Victoria Pool Society’s 2014 volunteer drive, Marchione said. “We were shocked when we got the call,” said Goldstein of Saratoga Springs, a long time booster of the stately pool built in 1934. “We’re very grateful to Senator Marchione.” The persistent Save the Victoria Pool Society contacted and met with Marchione to explain the needs at the pool, Goldstein said. The group’s efforts in 2003 moved state leaders to provide $1.5 million in funding to fix the pool and keep it open. “Since we got the original money, there really hasn’t been a lot done,” Goldstein said. She said the pool’s once elegant lobby was dirty and empty of furniture, the site’s iron railings were rusting and lots of other work was needed. Constructed in 1934 during the Great Depression, Victoria Pool was the first heated pool in the United States. “This resource needs to be preserved and protected so future generations can experience and enjoy the full beauty of Victoria Pool,” said Marchione, who faces a challenge from former interim Troy schools superintendent Brian Howard, a Democrat from Troy, in November.