Swimming Pool

Recently an owner sent an email to me asking when the swimming pool would be open.
I replied that normally the pool is open from late May until the last Saturday of September, but that unless some serious issues surrounding the running of the pool were resolved, it may not open at all this year.

At the committee meeting held in the office this morning Pepe said that some owners had requested the pool be opened at Easter. There seemed no particular objection to this except on the grounds of the increased cost of maintaining the pool for an extra two months without any additional income to pay for it.

However it was pointed out that several owners are unhappy at having to pay Community fees, some of which are used to pay for the upkeep of the pool, when people from all over Torrevieja, often by the car load, come onto Mi Sol to use the pool for free.

Until about three years ago when certain members of the Community started issuing false tickets, the system used to be that, a Lifeguard was employed, and that pool entry tickets were issued by the office to those owners who had paid their Community fees. This seemed to work quite well.

I pointed out this morning that my understanding was Mi Sol is legally obliged to employ a qualified Lifeguard during the hours when the pool is officially open. This is a requirement because of the VOLUME of water in the pool not on the square metres. Mi Sol pool is very deep compared to most Community pools. There were those that did not agree with me, and said that the posting of "disclaimer" notices around the pool was sufficient. They are correct in so far as to the use of the pool outside the officially posted opening hours. There were reports in the local papers last year regarding accidents that occurred in Community pools where no qualified Lifeguard was in attendance. This resulted in very serious fines levied against "the whole Community". In other words every owner was liable to pay their share of the fine.

It was finally agreed that the pool will open on the 1st May provided we can employ a qualified Lifeguard, and pool entry tickets can be printed in time. The question of whether we have any insurance covering the pool was not raised this morning, but I will be asking Pepe in the next few days whether we do in fact have adequate insurance in force.

The need to employ a Lifeguard could be overcome by reducing the volume of water in the pool.
Studies are being undertaken on how best to achieve this, either by filling in part of the pool to reduce the depth of water, or separate the main pool into two individual pools. It would be very cost effective to eliminate the need for a Lifeguard, as they are expensive to employ .... if you can find one available !!