City pool will stay closed this year

McCOOK, Neb. — It will be a quiet summer at the city swimming pool, as the McCook City Council unanimously approved Monday night to not open the pool due to COVID-19 restrictions.

“It will be strange to go by and not see kids in there,” Mayor Mike Gonzales admitted after the vote.

City Manager Nate Schneider began the discussion by telling the council that it made sense to close the pool, in light of social distancing requirements Gov. Pete Ricketts announced in early April. Ricketts recommended public pools to remain closed until July 15 and if opened, social distancing requirements of six feet between people and less than 10 in a crowd would have to be enforced.

Schneider said the July 15 opening date poses problems, with city staff concerned that by then, it would be difficult to hire high school and college aged students for life guard and basket help jobs.

In light of this, “It just doesn’t make sense to open up,” he said, adding that it would be difficult to enforce the social distancing requirements.

Councilman Jarod Muehlenkamp asked about the status of pool funds in the budget, if the pool is closed.

There is $114,527 budgeted in the 2019-20 budget, along with $50,000 from city sales tax revenue for a pool reserve.

Schneider said it could be utilized for other departments with the budget using projected and not actual numbers. He added, “I honestly don’t know where we’ll be one month from now, two months from now,” concerning possible COVID-19 virus costs.

Councilman Gene Weedin asked if pools are opening in other cities, with Schneider responding that other cities are considering closing, too. In fact, representatives from the City of Holdrege recently spoke to city staff about closing its public pool. “We’re all in the same boat,” he said.

Weedin also expressed concern about the spread of the virus if the pool opened and did not want to jeopardize the health of parents and others at home.

Keeping the pool water sanitized wouldn’t be a problem because of the chemicals, Schneider said, but for other areas, such as the bath house, slides, deck and basket room, “You just couldn’t sanitize enough.”

Enforcing groups of less than 10 and keeping kids six feet apart did not seem realistic to Mayor Mike Gonzales. “I have no idea how you’d open a pool and get kids to social distance,” he said.

Councilman Jerry Calvin made the motion, seconded by Councilman Weedin, to authorize city staff to close the McCook Public Pool for the 2020 summer. It was approved unanimously by the council.

Observing social distancing requirements, the council met with Mayor Gonzales and Councilman Calvin present, along with Schneider, City Clerk Lea Ann Doak and administrative assistant, Tracy Burkey. The rest of the council and city staff participated via Zoom teleconferencing.