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STEUBENVILLE -- Crews could soon be cleaning and painting Belleview Park's pools in preparation for swim season -- just not this year's.
On Wednesday, after mulling anticipated restrictions on operating public pools in a COVID-19 environment as well as costs, Steubenville's Parks and Recreation Board recommended that City Council forgo opening the pool this year.
Parks and Recreation Director Lori Fetherolf said her recommendation isn't changing, even though the governor gave public pools the go-ahead to open May 26.
The governor's announcement didn't include the special regulations that would be in effect once they opened, she noted.
"We can't manage, from what I've been told," Fetherolf said. "Maintaining 6-foot social distancing in water and on deck is a huge issue, it's very hard to do when you're dealing with kids. Also I know for a fact they'll be limiting the number of people coming in the pool. And it comes back to finances as well, with the state of the city right now."
It will be up to council now to decide if it wants to accept the park board's recommendation.
"I'm sure council will have questions," Fetherolf said. "Hopefully, by then we'll have exact guidelines that will need to be met in order to have the pool open, but I still anticipate those guidelines are going to be too restrictive for our pool."
Other restrictions rumored to be under consideration involve sanitizing restrooms and counters regularly, checking the temperature of pool-goers before allowing them in and signed liability waivers, as well as requiring children to be accompanied by an adult, closing attractions like Belleview's climbing wall and aqua zip and hiring a designated social distancing monitor.
Fetherolf said pools aren't money-makers at the best of times, and they'd already built a $37,000 operating loss for the pool into the 2020 budget -- that includes the $6,000 it costs to open the pool and $13,000 in supply costs, and is predicated on reaching a certain level in pass sales -- something no one can predict.
"My recommendation is we just don't open," she said. "I don't think it's financially feasible to do it at this time -- with the financial situation the city is going to be in the next month or so, I don't think it's a good use of money."
Board member Kelly Herman told Fetherolf she "completely agrees" with her assessment.
"A lot of these (ideas) seem outrageous," she said.
"Unfortunately, they're forgetting the fact that the best place anybody can be is out in the sun by germ-killing, chlorinated water.
"Obviously, our concern is our Steubenville constituency," Herman added. "Families and kids need something to do this summer, obviously a lot of things have been canceled that they'd otherwise be taking part in. It's painful to think of closing the pool, but these guidelines would create a pool experience that's monotonous at best. I think we'd get some people, but it would be a battle to enforce (all the social distancing regulations) -- and losing this kind of money for this kind of experience doesn't make sense."
"They're tying your hands," board member Vickie Nurczyk added. "I know everybody wants to be optimistic but it can't be done."
Board member Dave Albaugh called it "craziness," and asked if the pool doesn't open, "Can we drain (it) and do maintenance? We could do stuff we normally don't do at this time of year and get it done."
"I'd be in favor of that, I like the idea," Chairman Ken Peterson said. "It's a great opportunity to get things done, but we need to make sure people understand the pool is not closing -- this is basically a one-year pandemic situation."
If they can't open this year, Petersen said it makes sense to "do upgrades to the pool that needed done and haven't been done."
City Manager Jim Mavromatis said he "agrees wholeheartedly with the recommendation," noting there will be a lot of hoops to jump through before the pool could open.
He also liked the idea of having the pools "cleaned and painted so they're ready to open next year."