BSRanch
Guards hired for pool
Selicia Kennedy-Ross, Staff Writer
San Bernardino County Sun
Thirteen of the 14 lifeguards employed by San Bernardino did not show up for work Friday, explaining their actions in a note detailing their fears about working at the public pools with violent crime on the rise.
In response to those fears, police officers were posted poolside at the Jerry Lewis Family Swim Center through the weekend. The Lewis center's pool was packed with young people and families, but no problems arose.
On Monday, a security firm began patrolling the pool there.
"The security firm will remain at the Lewis Center for the foreseeable future," said Jim Morris, Mayor Pat Morris' son and chief of staff. "And we'll be evaluating whether similar arrangements should be made at other pool sites."
San Bernardino has had more than 30 homicides since the beginning of the year, including the shooting of 11-year-old Anthony Michael Ramirez last month while playing an evening game of basketball with friends at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School.
City officials said no serious incidents have occurred at the pools. At the Lewis Swim Center two weeks ago, a fight between two teenage girls escalated and on-duty lifeguards, who tried to intervene, were pushed and shoved.
"They felt their safety was being compromised," Curtis Brown Jr., recreation superintendent for the city Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department said Friday about the lifeguards' actions.
"There's fear there."
The city's pools have been a major focus of the mayor's "Safe Summer For Youth" plans announced last week, which will provide safe activities for kids part of his larger anti-crime effort, Operation Phoenix.
Morris has said there's "no question" that the city's pools are safe places for city residents and employees.
The mayor's plan includes a proposal to expand hours for the city pools, keeping them open seven days a week until 7 p.m. Qualified lifeguards have been in short supply this season, but the city is hiring more people to staff the pools.
Other plans are in the works to replace the dry, aging wading pools at Wildwood and Lytle Creek parks with fully automated water playgrounds, smaller versions of those at the Lewis Swim Center. The funding also includes upgrades to the existing water playground at the Lewis center.
The San Bernardino City Council voted to move forward with plans for the aquatic playgrounds Monday, a project that will cost about $450,000.
Construction is expected to be completed by fall, Jim Morris said.
5th District county Supervisor Josie Gonzales helped to earmark the lion's share of funding for the project last fall nearly $400,000 to replace the wading pools and install the new water playgrounds, said Bob Page, Gonzales' chief of staff.
To make the wading pools functional again would require resurfacing and upgrades to the drainage systems, in addition to hiring staff to supervise and fill and drain the pools daily, according to a City Council agenda report.
But the water playgrounds, with their nonslip surfaces and timer systems that drain automatically will not need to be supervised, Morris said.
The automated playground would work with the touch of a button and features poles that spray and splash water on the user.
"These systems will provide residents with a way to cool off without requiring a lifeguard," Jim Morris said.
2969 N. Flores St.
(909) 384-5417
Boys & Girls Club
1180 W. Ninth St.
(909) 888-6751
Nunez Aquatics Center (Ruben Campos Community Center)
1717 W. Fifth St.
(909) 384-5421
Hours of operation: 9 a.m. - 8 p.m., Monday - Friday.
Rudy C. Hernandez Community Center
222 N. Lugo Ave.
(909) 384-5420
Hours of operation: 9 a.m. - 8 p.m., Monday - Friday.
Mill Pool
503 E. Central Ave.
(909) 384-5422
Jerry Lewis Family Swim Center
900 E. Highland Ave.
(909) 384-5419
No comments:
Post a Comment