Pools should be open for entire summer

New leadership is needed in the aquatic department in Cedar Rapids, which has been the case for many years.

The aquatic supervisor fails to promote goals for growth and continuation of the summer swimming program. Instead, the pools are shutting down earlier each year. This year, similar to last year, pools at Jones, Bever and Ellis parks closed by Aug. 10. Over the Memorial Day holiday this year, only Noelridge pool was open for swimming. At 2:30 p.m., lines of people were still waiting to get in and enjoy the afternoon swim.

The aquatic department cites reasons such as a shortage of lifeguards, with many available only when school is out for the summer. But a list of 15 stating they would have guarded over Memorial Day and would stay on longer into the season was gathered at one pool. Other lifeguards also have indicated they would do the same in order to keep the pools open.

Another reason given was that training was not completed by Memorial Day weekend, and only enough lifeguards had been trained to supervise one pool.

Again, this is a cry for new leadership as it clearly shows the problem within the aquatic department.

If you have the same concerns about the Cedar Rapids summer swimming program, I encourage you to call the city and give more voice to the problem of pools being underutilized.

Pat Smith

Cedar Rapids