By Gina Morton
The Daily Item
LEWISBURG —
Parents are furious that children in diapers have been banned from a public pool, arguing that they face paying regular prices for limited access and difficulty watching their other children throughout the rest of the facility.
James Marshall, of Lewisburg, said he takes his two children — a 6½-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter — to the Lewisburg Community Pool nearly every day during the summer.
An early July incident resulted in a policy change in which children in diapers — including swimming diapers — are now restricted to the baby pool.
The new rule forces Marshall to stay at the kiddie pool with his daughter while his son swims in the nearby main pool, largely unsupervised.
"Parents are told they're responsible for their kids," he told the Lewisburg Area Recreation Authority board Thursday morning. The authority owns and operates the pool.
"It's impossible to see anyone at the (main) pool (from the kiddie pool)," Marshall said. "There are two tables and umbrellas, a bench, garbage cans. I've had two conversations with the executive director and nothing has been done to move it around."
Marshall also told the board that the kiddie pool does not have a lifeguard, and a sign is posted warning that no lifeguard is on duty at an adjacent wading area.
"We're forced to have our children swim at risk?" he asked. "The closest lifeguard has their back to us."
Pool manager Ginger Kiernan told the board there is a roving lifeguard who frequently keeps an eye on the shallow wading pool.
Responded Marshall: The only time the roving lifeguard walks by is when he or she is off duty.
Emily Voneida, of Lewisburg, told the LARA board she takes her 1-year-old daughter to the pool and when she confronted pool officials about the policy change, she was treated "horribly."
"I was told to get out and go to Mifflinburg," she said. "... I think this is a rash decision, and to pay the whole membership to use just the baby pool is absurd."
"When a person makes the decision to have children, there are things the family faces," Kiernan said, "and certain compromises made with children of that age the whole family has to face."
She said the design of the pool allows the facility to put such a policy in place. The idea is when the child graduates out of diapers, he or she can enter the zero-depth pool. She continued that the child then gradually moves onto the shallow end of the main pool, then eventually the deep end.
The board voted and asked Marshall to meet with Kiernan and Kevin Drewencki, LARA executive director, to discuss the situation and return with suggestions for the board to make. Those will be discussed at the Aug. 26 meeting.
Until then, pool officials agreed to move obstructions between the pools and make signs educating swimmers. Officials will also add a baby changing station in the men's bathroom.
Daily admission for a child between the ages of 1 and 6 to enter the facility is $3.75, regardless if he or she is using only the baby pool in the corner or the larger main pool.
Sunbury, Northumberland, Mifflinburg and Selinsgrove pools admit children under 5 free. None of the four pools have any regulations on how old a swimmer must be before entering the main pool.
There are no guidelines for diapers in pools with either the state Department of Health or the National Centers for Disease Control, but Sherri Trometter, a spokeswoman for the health department, said it's up to the facility caretakers to run the pool in a safe and healthful manner.
n E-mail comments to gmorton@dailyitem.com
