Whereas the day and the week revolve around school for nine months a year for many families, it is the neighborhood pool that’s central for many during the summer months. Sorry, folks, but that’s getting canceled, too.
Local communities across the country were already canceling swim season weeks before anyone would think of jumping in.
Near St. Louis, the Chesterfield City Council voted 5-3 to keep its aquatic facility closed this summer due to the potential health risks posed by the coronavirus outbreak. Beyond the health concerns, there are financial costs to reopening the facility, too, according to the city’s administrator, Mike Geisel.
“We cannot operate the pool, maintain social distancing, and protect the public at the pool — it is simply too costly to accomplish the repairs, open, and, with the extended stay-at-home order, we can’t train the lifeguards, the season will be shortened, causing an increasing operational deficit,” Geisel wrote in an April 20 memo, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
This financial concern is a big part of the reason why Mayor Bill de Blasio decided to close New York City’s public pools as well. He hopes to save nearly $12 million by keeping them closed, according to NY1, which could help the city climb out of the budgetary hole the coronavirus has created.
The situation is the same near Kansas City, where two local towns decided against reopening their pools, water parks, and community centers, despite receiving permission from the state government to do so.
“The pools are really popular in the summer. And you just hate not opening them,” Doug Schroeder, who works for Kansas City Parks and Recreation, told the Kansas City Star. “But there are a lot of risks we have right now that are really serious.”
A complete lack of social distancing might indeed be a health risk if these facilities were to become overcrowded. But as for the pools themselves, there’s minimal health risk, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“There is no evidence that COVID-19 can be spread to humans through the use of pools, hot tubs or spas, or water playgrounds,” the CDC’s guidance states.
Keeping those facilities clean, however, would be a challenge that some localities just aren’t willing to tackle.
“The logistical concerns are all valid, and they may prove to be insurmountable,” Prairie Village Councilman Tucker Poling told the Kansas City Star after the city council voted to keep the town’s pools closed indefinitely.
So, when temperatures outside hit the high 80s, what will the children of Chesterfield do this summer? Something they’ve gotten pretty good at: stay inside.
