07/18/2005 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Meeting - 7/18/05 Page 2 Mayor Rinker stated that we will still continue to look for personnel and we will grab where we can> if for no other reason, we have to validate what we have been saying. It has been an operational decision we made years ago, and until last year, it didn't catch the attention of anyone because of the weather. This year, we've had incredibly hot summers, so that the pledge we make is that we will continue to look and push this. The managers for example, we know across the board, at least his experience, anyone he has seen in different communities are typically teachers, because they are about the only ones with competence that you can get in the summer time. There are not that many people out there that have that kind of schedule and have that level of expertise. Mayor Rinker stated he will Zook and we are not giving up on the thing, but we know it's a challenge. Mr. Thomas stated that we are willing to extend 1t a little, but can't extend it beyond the 28~' at this point. Mrs. Eisenberg questioned as to how does Mayfield Heights do it? She doesn't understand how they can have their pool opened until the middle of September last year and they charge the children that live in the Village, $1.00 to go in. Mr. Buckholtz stated that one of the things that brought something new to the table is he was talking with some kids that were graduating, that we'll have six or seven new life guards graduating in mid or early August and they want to go to work. We thought it was a lifeguard problem, you wouldn't want a whole staff of green horns, you want some experienced ones with the new ones. In the course of his conversation with Mr. Thomas, they realized that all of their three managers are teachers, and without really knowing this in advance, it kind of came out of this long winded conversation that we had that it is really a management problem. Mr. Buckholtz further stated that we can plan all we want, but we are also at the mercy of the weather. If we solve this problem and get the personnel that we need, it is not a money problem, but a personnel problem, and the weather doesn't cooperate, it was all for nothing. If the weather is beautiful and we want to be swimming, he thinks we can. The challenge is that Mr. Thomas and Mrs. Danielle Echt and other personnel in the department could train from now until August on some managerial skills, then we could open for those abbreviated hours. The spirit of Council is that we can open the pool as long as we can enjoy that facility safely. Mr. Thomas stated that two years ago, we had this type of summer. We had burn-out, not only from our staff, but burn-out from the people that were using the pool, so by August l5~', peoples' focuses are on other things than the pool, the majority of people. We still have some lap swimmers that want to swim, but the bottom line is pool age children and parents, with this type of summer are ready to move on, Mr. Buckholtz stated that the reason last summer it became so apparent is that last summer was the opposite; it was a lousy summer and then the beautiful weather came at the end of August; everyone wanted to go swimming and the pool was closed. So, what Mr. Thomas was saying is when you have a summer Iike this, like we had two years ago, the fgures show that the attendance declines and people are kind of tired. of the pool but we are working on it. Dr. Parker asked about Labor Day weekend, not necessarily weekdays, is that correct?