Kids pool hours test period extended

Green Valley Recreation’s Board of Directors voted 10-1 on Tuesday to extend the test period for children’s pool hours at the West Center “indefinitely.”

The board voted in July to extend children’s hours at the West Center from 11 a.m. to close during the week and 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends, making it GVR’s family pool. They then voted to implement the new hours on an experimental basis until Dec. 31, when they would review statistics and membership feedback and vote whether to continue the program.

However, extending the time period would allow the board to account for the impact the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays — when children would be out of school — would have on the program. Board President Altie Metcalf said the vote came with the provision that the board will deal with issues related to the program as they arise.

Alison Brown, recreation director for GVR, said she’s received more than a dozen phone calls from parents and grandparents thanking GVR for creating a year-round family pool. Board members Chuck Catino and Linda Sparks said they’ve also received positive feedback from members.

But member Elmer Silaghi, recalling the heated and well-attended July board meeting, asked, “Do 12 phone calls take precedence over 80 people attending a meeting?”

Board member Jim Burt voted against the extension. He said it was difficult to get a pool monitor to volunteer during the early morning and late night hours when children would be swimming, and argued it was too dangerous and too much of a liability for GVR.

None of the pools have pool monitors 100 percent of the time, Brown said, though some pools have up to 90 percent coverage. GVR officials have said that monitors are not lifeguards and parents are responsible for the safety of their children while in the pool.

jrichardson@gvnews.com | 547-9726