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Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Pools open to the Public there disapearing due to Litigation and other factors

When I was a kid there where many  privately owned Swimming Pools Open to the Public around Western Pa.
Like Kennywood Parks gigantic pool and Blue Dell on US 30 or the Kings Motel big pool on US22   But there all gone now just like the picture below of the once  fantastic pool at former Alcoma Golf Club which was recently closed and filled in  located in Penn Hills  as well as many private swim club pools as well.
Alcoma's filled in pool  now a grassy area

Last summer many community pools where closed as well as several  in City of Pittsburgh and one in  Apollo  My customer who owns an apartment complex  had a small pool  for use of the apartment residents closed there's last year as well as did many small motels and hotels close theirs.

All victims to the ever rising costs of Insurance and Maintenance and compliance with regulations.

Insurance costs have shot thru the roof due to many unfounded  lawsuits in one case one of my customers who sells swimming pools was sued in court by a drunk individual who dove in and broke his neck in a shallow pool despite warnings not to, and it was not allowed to be mentioned during the trial that he was drunk.
 Many pools are aging and leaking and cost thousands to keep filled with water  and keep water properly tested and balanced with chemicals to prevent infection as well and then there's the constant hassle to keep pools staffed with Qualified Life Guards as rules and regulations for there training has increased and  young people no longer want to work summer jobs .
What has  killed many pools at motels and hotels in particular is ADA Americans with Disabilities act  rules requiring special lifts to allow wheel chair and handicapped individuals to access pools  which are expensive  to install and maintain and can lead to ever higher  litigation costs. So as my customer who sells pools has seen a dramatic rise in pool sales to home owners you are also hearing every summer of even higher deaths as pools shift to unregulated and un-guarded back yard pools  and those sit on the ground blow up  portable pools have claimed many a young person's life because home owners put up the portable pools but put no fence around them as regular back yard pools require . My customer refuses to sell them along with portable pool alarms which warn if some one enters unauthorized  and I refuse to have anything as well with the alarms due to high risk of litigation involved should one fail as most of them constantly false or do not work at all. It is a nightmare .

Back yard pools are also encouraging more  drinking of alcohol and swimming  a bad mix   and there has been a dramatic increase of deaths and injury's due to all the backyard pools as well. 
You are also hearing every year of more accidents with chemicals involving pools when customers improperly mix them and talking about pool chemicals and there adjustment .
  Where  back yard  pool water does not require constant testing and adjusting like public pools you are also seeing  more people with skin and other health problems caused by improperly filtered pool water  . But then again this just goes to show what happens when you try to  protect and be nanny to the public and end up hurting them like so many Liberals whose stated  intentions generate the exact opposite result. Once again over regulation plays a big part.

So when its hot this summer and you want to go to the public pool and go swimming will one be available to you this summer?

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