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Our neighborhood pool is now closed for the season, but I still have a nagging question. Why is it manned with 2 lifeguards? Does your neighborhood pool have lifeguards and is so, do you know why.....other than to save people. I question the reasoning, as it would cost a pretty penny. Does this get offset by a reduction in insurance? Is it a draw to potential home buyers? Is it a town regulation (Fuquay-Varina)?
Actually, many HOA insurance policies charge MORE when you have lifeguards. If you don't have lifeguards, you post the appropriate signs, everyone swims at their own risk, etc. If you put a lifeguard there, you are opening yourself up to liability. You are saying, "If something happens, we will save you" (in the minds of insurance agents).
It's not a town regulation. It adds a large amount to your pool management contract. It's up to the board- they have to decide whether it's worth it to spend the extra money to have that for the residents. If you want your opinion known, you need to advise the board of it so they can bear that in mind when bidding the 2010 pool management or sending out RFPs.
Actually, many HOA insurance policies charge MORE when you have lifeguards. If you don't have lifeguards, you post the appropriate signs, everyone swims at their own risk, etc. If you put a lifeguard there, you are opening yourself up to liability. You are saying, "If something happens, we will save you" (in the minds of insurance agents).
It's not a town regulation. It adds a large amount to your pool management contract. It's up to the board- they have to decide whether it's worth it to spend the extra money to have that for the residents. If you want your opinion known, you need to advise the board of it so they can bear that in mind when bidding the 2010 pool management or sending out RFPs.
Interesting. I was not aware of the issue regarding a higher insurance cost with lifeguards. I don't know what my opinion is at this point, as I am trying to figure out what the reasoning can be on it. I would prefer to hear all viewpoints from both sides and then make up my mind.
I would recommend asking your board. I'm on a pool/club board with lifeguards, but our pool is a private, community pool, not an HOA neighborhood pool, so the whole situation is very different.
I know our board has monthly meetings and a yearly membership meeting to ask such questions (although they can be asked at any time). I would ask them before I would question it here, board, because each pool situation is uniquely different depending on the goals of the club, the budget, and what the board and membership have voted for in the past.
I will say that OUR club pays $58K for chemicals, maintenance and the lifeguards for the contract we currently have in place. We've also had some other estimates of up to $62K, but those also inlcluded lifeguards, pool maintenance and chemicals.
Buying the chemicals area HUGE part of the cost. We actually found that using a pool management company costs us less because of their bulk chemical buying ability than running the pool ourselves (which is the way our pool used to run years ago, but with lifeguards).
Prestonwood used to operate half a dozen lifeguards at it's small Preston Village Pool. 2 at a time at their posts and the rest just sat around a table doing nothing. That was a little too much especially when they weren't doing anything. The club has now granted the pool to the neighborhood and no longer operates it.
I think it has more to do with keeping a lid on kids and teenagers as it does to prevent drowning. My old neighborhood just started getting lifeguards last year and that was definately the reason the board decided to do so. There were some incidents at the pool involving non-resident teenagers and so the board hired a lifeguard to to check resident IDs at the gate and throw out unaccompanied minors. They did this seperately from the pool contract so they just hired a single person. The pool companies I think generally require at least 2 at all times who will rotate who is on duty.
Many of the pools I've gone to rotate lifeguards every 20 minutes. There is a lot of research out there that says that lifeguards can't stay at peak attention for more than 30 minutes. I've read that the American Red Cross recommends a 15 minute break for lifeguards every hour. You pretty much have to have at least two in the facility to have any kind of breaks, and without the breaks the lifeguards lose effectiveness. This article also suggests that you need two so that if there is in an incident then one guard can manage it while the other continues to keep an eye on swimmers. Lifeguard Vigilance: Every Second Counts | RCM&D (http://www.rcmd.com/cs/risk_management/lifeguard_vigilance - broken link)
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