Oil City Says ‘No’ to Opening Pool

| May 29, 2020

OIL CITY, Pa. (EYT) – The fate of the James A. Nelles Memorial Pool has been decided.

Oil City council members voted on Thursday to keep the James A. Nelles Memorial Pool closed for the 2020 summer season due to the COVID-19 mitigation requirements. The city staff believes the requirements may be impossible to follow at the pool facility.

The vote was a tight one. Initially, it was a tie, due in part to council member Mike Poff being absent.

The first vote had council members Isaiah Dunham and Ron Gustafson voting to open the pool, while Mayor Bill Moon and council member Mike Walentosky voted to keep the pool closed.

During a second vote, Gustafson changed his vote in favor of keeping the pool closed for the season.

According to Dunham, one of the major issues leading to the closure was concern over CDC regulations that could be difficult, or even impossible, for the city to meet.

“There were things in the regulations that were just not going to be feasible overall,” Dunham told exploreVenango.com.

The CDC recommendations say that handrails and ladder rails have to be sanitized continually, and city staff questioned how that could be undertaken between each patron climbing in and out of the pool.

The recommendations also set a standard for an interview process for each person going into the facility, including both staff and patrons, to screen for possible COVID-19 symptoms, as well as a strict limit on the occupancy, which would have been onerous for staff to regulate.

“That was going to create a hardship, especially with having kids going in and out,” Dunham said.

Staffing the pool was another concern, with additional staff necessary on top of the requisite number of lifeguards to handle all of the necessary steps to comply with CDC recommendations.

The financial implications of opening the pool were also a topic of discussion.

While city manager Mark Schroyer noted the pool typically doesn’t make money and normally costs the city as much as $10,000.00 per year to operate, opening this year would most likely cost the city significantly more due to having to close the concession stand, having higher expenses due to extra employees, and having less patrons due to the occupancy limit.

Schroyer told the council he anticipated opening the pool could cost the city over $30,000.00.

According to Dunham, while that loss could be acceptable on a normal year, as other city parks and facilities also have costs associated with their maintenance, the cost is more of a concern with the overall economic impact of the shut down still unknown.

“We still don’t know the long-term implications of the shutdown and the economic situation we have happening right now, and where the shortfall will be on our income. That’s the most nerve-racking thing when it comes to losing more than we need to on something right now.”

While the council chose to keep the pool closed for the season, they did vote to allow some other summer outdoor activities to resume.

The council voted to allow softball to commence, following all of the recommendations from the CDC.

They also voted to approve the commencement of the Summer Playground Program.

Dunham noted that with programs like organized softball and the playground program, adults on site will be able to guide the programs while enforcing CDC recommendations.


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