Prairie Village and Roeland Park voted to not open their public pools this summer

On May 4, Roeland Park and Prairie Village City Councils voted in regards to keeping public pools closed this summer due to safety concerns with the pandemic. Both pools voted in favor of pool closure, Roeland Park with a unanimous vote and Prairie Village with a 10-2 disparity.  

With Gov. Laura Kelly’s phased approach to reopening Kansas, pools will technically be able to open in phase two, which will start no sooner than May 18. However, the gathering limit is set for no groups exceeding 30 people. This means that pools will be unable to open to full capacity, let alone be fully staffed, causing some pools to readjust their plans for the summer in order to keep their staff and visitors safe. 

The remaining cities in the county are also deciding what changes need to be made to allow for social distancing at pools — or if they are even going to open this summer.

The Overland Park community development committee has recommended that the city keeps all outdoor pools closed for the season. Their city council will vote on this decision most likely at their next meeting on May 18.

Although the city of Lenexa has yet to cancel their 2020 season like some of the other pools have, they posted on April 22 that they are expecting their pool season to be affected by COVID-19 regardless. The city is planning on having at least one of its three outdoor pools ready for the summer, the Indian Trails Aquatic Center, as well as the indoor pools at the Lenexa Rec Center.

Additionally, the Johnson County Swim and Dive League announced on April 29 that the 2020 Swim and Dive League season will be canceled. The league includes teams from Fairway, Leawood, Lenexa, Merriam, Olathe, Overland Park, Prairie Village, Roeland Park and Shawnee pools.

Country clubs, such as Indian Hills Country Club, are also dealing with summer’s approach. IHCC has a pool committee working on a recommendation for their plan this summer to present to the club’s Board of Directors, who will then discuss and vote on whether to open the pool.

For Prairie Village and Roeland Park, one of the main factors that pushed them to their decisions was concern for the safety of their staff.

“The six feet social distance made it nearly impossible to train our lifeguards,” Roeland Park Superintendent of Parks and Recreation Tony Nichols said. “Lifeguards need to be able to perform contact rescues as part of their training and obviously in an actual scenario in the pool we would not be able to train our lifeguards until the six feet social distancing is lifted.”

Some of their training could be done online, such as parts of the American Red Cross training class, but a majority of the lifesaving training requires them to be working with other lifeguards in the water. The cities didn’t want the lifeguards on duty without being fully trained. 

There is already a level of inherent danger that comes with swimming pools, with or without COVID-19 being added into the mix, Assistant City Administrator of Prairie Village Meghan Buum said. Considerations such as removing chairs from the pool deck, having concessions that didn’t require preparation — bottled or pre-packaged snacks — and limiting the number of people allowed into the facility to help enforce social distancing were made. 

The pool staff would’ve also had to take on several additional responsibilities to keep the pool safe including wearing masks, constantly cleaning frequently touched surfaces and making sure that all of the pool patrons stay six feet apart.

With staffs comprised mostly of teenagers between the ages of 15 and 18 years old, the pools weren’t comfortable putting them in a position where they could possibly be exposed to COVID-19.

“If we had opened the pool with [the] expectation that they would be performing life saving measures on people who could be sick, we would be asking [teenagers] to serve on the frontlines,” Buum said. “They’re not nurses, doctors, they’re not police officers or firefighters, so it was just this desire to keep our pool staff safe.” 

For East alum Henry Leopold, this year was supposed to be his fourth summer as a lifeguard at the Prairie Village pool.

“I am definitely sad about it because I enjoyed working there and now I have to find a new job, but it’s probably for the best since you don’t want people getting sick,” Leopold said.

While the closure of pools for the summer is a major loss for the staff members as well as the communities, the decision has some positive impacts. 

Roeland Park is pushing renovations and reconstruction on their pool up a month that wasn’t expected to start until after Labor Day, which will ensure they’ll be open in time for the 2021 season. Also, with the expenses from chemicals, water, electricity and staff, there is always money lost with maintaining the pools, so the cancellation could slightly benefit the cities financially.

“It takes away the opportunity for kids to come swim at the Roeland Park Aquatic Center this summer, but it could potentially have a positive impact as well,” Nichols said. “We are doing our part to hopefully help flatten this curve and lessen the chance for community spread of the COVID-19 virus.”