SCHENECTADY City pools get new operators for this summer Nonprofit groups to assume duties BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
All of the city’s pools will be run by nonprofits this summer, in an acknowledgement that those groups can do a better job of enforcing good behavior among sometimesrowdy swimmers. City officials have negotiated a contract with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Schenectady to run the Central Park pool this summer, in addition to Quackenbush and Hillhurst pools. That means swimmers will have to provide identification at Central Park, just as they now do at the smaller pools. Those who are kicked out of any pool will have their pool privileges automatically suspended at all the pools. Last year, city officials tried to replicate the clubs’ ID rules at Central Park. But this year, they said, it would be easier and cheaper to simply let the clubs do it. “We would have a proven entity operating the pools,” said city offi ce manager Jeremy Howard. “They could offer more. Park recreation is their primary mission.” The change comes at no additional cost to the city. Schenectady will turn over the $85,000 budgeted for lifeguards, Mayor Gary McCarthy said. Howard said the arrangement will allow the city to keep vacant the position that Diane Marco used to fill. She left on Jan. 1 to become the Rotterdam town clerk. Marco hired the lifeguards, which was not a simple task. Central Park alone needs 30 lifeguards because of its size, Howard said. To hire and oversee all the lifeguards for all the pools, the city would have to replace Marco, he added. Instead, the Boys and Girls Clubs will handle that work. Clubs Executive Director Shane Bargy said he took the job, although he doesn’t expect to make a profit. “We’re not doing this for the money,” he said. “It’s what we do.” Clubs officials decided they would, at worst, break even. That was enough, Bargy said. “In the end, it’s about safety. The kids need a safe place to go in the summer,” he said. And it helps the clubs with grants — they have cited their work with Schenectady in a variety of grant applications, Bargy said. The clubs successfully turned around Quackenbush Pool, which was repeatedly closed early because swimmers so often attacked each other and lifeguards. The clubs came in with adults — rather than teenagers — to enforce the rules, and offered dry-land activities to keep children occupied.................................>>>>.........................>>>>..............................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01201&AppName=1
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