From Shannon…
The City has agreed to keep McKoy Pool open on weekdays in August from 9:00 to 1:00. (Since CSD is starting back on August 2nd this year, they had originally planned to close all the pools on weekdays starting August 1st.)
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I’d really rather have it open in the evenings. McKoy Park is our neighborhood pool. It’s so hot in August it’d be grea to go for a swim in the evenings after school and work. We do it all the time the rest of the summer. I’m really not liking this early start date to the school year.
Yay! For those of us with little ones, this is great news. We can hit the pool when the bigger kids are back in school. I always thought it was a shame that the pools closed as soon as school started. There are still plenty of people who would like to go for a dip during the dog days of summer!
It’s actually ridiculous, not a shame. We paid that much for pools that are open for basically months???
TWO MONTHS! Summers are six months long here! Either the city needs to figure out how to keep them open longer or stop building them and put the money into something we can actually use.
What about those of us that work without kids? I’d love to jump in the pool after work.
Uh, not McCoy.
What’s wrong with McKoy’s pool? It’s practically brand new!
What about Glenlake pool??? I remember hearing once that the pools have to close when school starts because they lose their lifeguards, but can’t high school kids still work weekends?
This was the email that Jabari sent around with regards to keeping Glenlake open:
It’s not something that can be done this pool season. The contract with the pool company has always included McKoy being open for one weekday during each week in August. I was able to change the guard hours and reduce the length of the pool day so that we could keep McKoy open at no extra cost to the city. Glenlake presents a bigger problem because it is 7 times the size of McKoy pool. It would be tremendously expensive to operate that pool for only a short period of time every day. However, I will look at the possibility next season of having the pool open sometime in August if the school system continues to have such short summer breaks.
Jabari Cole
Great solution.
I commend the City for balancing costs of keeping pools open vs. the need of having it open for those that like to use the pool after August.
I don’t, because it’s not after August; the pools close for most of the city IN August. The pools are open for 4 hours after August FIRST for a very select group of people who work at home, housewives and husbands and retirees, not the majority of the city. I think we are putting a lot of money into building & maintaining resources that the majority of the city can’t use for more than 60 days a year. I didn’t really realize how limited the use for most of the city really is until this post, and I find that a little disturbing. The city’s excuse for closing has never been cost; it’s been the availability of lifeguards. Not sure college students can’t be hired or how this excuse works since they are opening in the mornings in August. Also not sure why the dozens and dozens of people who come in from outside Decatur to use the pool aren’t charged more to help the defray the cost of the lifeguards….
My understanding is that the reason Decatur Rec decided to keep McKoy open in the mornings in August is because parents with toddlers who don’t attend school asked them to. I suspect that Jabari Cole would have been happy to take other viewpoints into account if he had heard them.
Can their toddlers not use the pool in the afternoons instead so that the rest of us taxpayers can also enjoy it?
I am willing to shoot an email to ask that the schedule becomes a compromise between taxpayers and toddlers?
Some of us with toddlers are also taxpayers. Just saying.
And as I said, I’m sure if Decatur Rec had heard other viewpoints, they would have taken them into consideration.
I have a toddler and I’m a taxpayer but I am not a stay at home parent, so my toddler gets left out, along with the majority of the city, because he isn’t lucky enough to have a parent that can stay home? That’s my point, actually. I was trying to be a little more light hearted about it, but since you pushed that button…
Well we don’t actually use City of Decatur pools, so I don’t really have a horse in the race. My only point is that people seem to be making it into a “why are they getting something we don’t get?” thing, when in fact it’s a “squeaky wheel gets the grease” thing. I think it was actually really responsive of Decatur Rec to change the schedule as they did. So if you have hot buttons, go take it up with Decatur Rec, but don’t blame the people who thought to ask for what they wanted and happened to get it.
Which is actually worse. Instead of figuring out which hours of opening benefit the most people in the city, and choosing those hours, the rec center simply responded to a very small section – and a very, very few voices- of complaint. The center actually promised last year to keep the pools open longer this year. What they actually did was CUT the hours.
I don’t even swim. We use the pools a few times for the baby to float. That’s actually not the point. The real point is use of public resources. We poured millions into developing resources that are available less and less to the public each year. It is absolutely absurd for the city to develop these pools then not keep them open for a decent amount of time each summer. It renders the resource wasted and the value of the resource relative to its use is negated. It’s absolutely absurd for the city to cater to a tiny segment of the population in keeping one pool open. It doesn’t matter who whined. If the city is going to make this resource available, then the pool should be open after school so the most children & adults benefit, period. The toddler parents can use the pool from 9-1 or from 2-6. It’s irrelevant on that point, frankly, since if you go during the week, the busy times are the afternoons after nap anyway.
How about CSD switching back to a traditional calendar? Then the pools could be open for more than a blink of an eye. This mini-summer vacation is ridiculous. We are just settling into summer and we have to start thinking about school supplies. BTW, where is the “childcare clearinghouse” that was promised by the calendar committee? I have been unable to find childcare for the September break so I plan to drop mine off at Westchester before work. It’s a wonderful property for kids, and I’m sure that central office will be happy to take care of them.
This is freakin’ awesome
I have been unable to find childcare for the September break so I plan to drop mine off at Westchester before work. It’s a wonderful property for kids, and I’m sure that central office will be happy to take care of them.
There are soooo many people out of work right now I’m sure it would be possible to find a few that are certified lifeguards.
I was actually shocked to see here that Decatur pools would be closed before Labor Day! I suppose McKoy and Glenlake will be open on weekends after Aug 1st and up until Labor Day, but Piedmont Park pool will be open regular hours until Monday Sep 6th and the outdoor pool at the YMCA in Buckhead will be open regular hours until Labor Day too. I suppose we’ll be going to one of those two pools on sticky weekday afternoons/evenings after work in August…..
Since most people it appears are upset either with the closing, the morning opening solution or both, I suggest you email
and let’s nicely suggest that the morning opening benefits a very tiny segment of the population and those resources might be better used for afternoon openings.
And while your are at it please email central office and tell them that your kids would like their summer back.
Open Glenlake pool during the week, too!!!! At least in the afternoons.
Also, I agree with Nelliebelle — afternoons are better b/c almost all parents, children and singles can join the fun.
Come on, Jabari. Last year, you all promised to look into keeping Glenlake open this summer — now you say maybe next summer…why not now? It’s so hot in August and the pool is one of the best recreational services of the city, is healthy for the residents of the city and fun.
It’s a bigger pool than the one in Oakhurst, yes. That means that everyone can enjoy it — lap swimmers, people looking to relax, parents and children, teens, etc.
The Oakhurst pool is so small and so crowded that it’s hard for adults wanting exercise to enjoy it — especially since the lifeguards don’t ask the teens to be aware of the people swimming laps. Not that the teens are in the wrong — the pool doesn’t have much space for them either!
Keeping the Glenlake pool open — in the afternoons when everyone, including school kids and working adults can enjoy it, is a much better solution.
Have you considered charging an extra fee for doing this? Would the members be willing to pay? What if it was just 2-3 days per week? It doesn’t hurt to ask, right?
Thanks, Staci
P.S. The survey that was supposed to be put out at the pool last August didn’t work b/c there was no signage associated with it, the receptionists rarely mentioned it, and the survey wasn’t available every day, etc. So maybe contacting residents by phone or e-mail would work better.
Schools really go back on AUGUST 2? You have got to be kidding.
Nope. It gets hard to explain to elementary school kids. You tell them that June 21 is the beginning of the season of summer but, on that date, their summer vacation is already half over. Their “summer vacation” ends 7 weeks before the end of summer! Since the rest of the country outside of the Southeast has school summer vacations that run from late June to Labor Day, the super early school start date puts the kibosh on a lot of family reunion, camp and academic opportunities that occur outside of this region.
It is evident from this discussion that my decision to keep McKoy pool open in the mornings has caused some citizens to feel left out. In February, there was a massive email campaign sponsored by some mothers that live in the McKoy area, urging me to do whatever I could do to provide them with some morning weekday hours at McKoy Pool. This campaign lasted through the month of June until I was able to work out a deal with our pool management company to staff the pool while still staying within the budget that was approved by the City Commission. I am not aware of any promises that were made about Glenlake Pool last year because I have only been in this position since February. The decisions that I made were in response to comments and concerns that were brought to my attention by your fellow citizens. I feel it is a bit unfair to be so disappointed with Decatur Active Living when the requests to keep Glenlake Pool open or to have McKoy open in the afternoons are new to me. The pool season has traditionally followed the City of Decatur schools calendar and I must admit that I did not forsee all of the problems that closing our pools at the beginning of August would create. I assure all of you who use City of Decatur pools that based on this years response, the Active Living Department will do everything possible to make sure that the pools do not close in the beginning of August next season. However, our current pool contract makes keeping Glenlake open during the week impossible. We strive to offer the citizens of Decatur top notch customer service and I apologize to all of you who have been disappointed by length of the 2010 pool season.
Mr. Cole, props to you for responding– I daresay most cities’ officials wouldn’t have even bothered.
What, you mean it actually costs money to keep pools open? I for one am shocked.
Some people just need to complain, and good on ya, Jabari, for a job well done.
LOVE this change — thank you!