Parks and Rec begins looking for lifeguards to potentially reopen Northside Swim Center

Rome Floyd Parks and Recreation is looking for lifeguards for the Northside Swim Center as administration talks about possibly reopening the pool for the summer.

Recreation Services Manager Jim Alred said they have potential plans for the reopening, but they won’t announce any official plans until they have enough positions filled. Parks and Recreation Director Todd Wofford said they have already gotten a few applications since the job openings were posted on Monday.

According to the Georgia Department of Public Health public pool guidelines, pools must be cleaned thoroughly after uses to prevent coronavirus exposure, limiting the use of locker rooms and locker room showers and space out standing and sitting areas so patrons can remain six feet apart from people they don’t live with.

During the county commission meeting on Tuesday, County Manager Jamie McCord said they have been working on the swimming pool reopening and have consulted with the Northwest Georgia DPH Director Dr. Gary Voccio on the reopening. The county manager said they have a tentative reopening date of June 20.

“We’ll have limited participants in the swimming pool and you’ll have to actually register for a session,” McCord said.

The sessions would last about two hours before a new session starts. Before a new group comes into the pool, the entire area will be sanitized and cleaned.

“Some private pools are already open, but we’ve built this plan in conjunction with the Department of Public Health,” the county manager said.

To apply for a lifeguard position, you must possess a current lifeguard certification and be at least 16 years old. The hourly pay ranges from $10 to $14.50 an hour. The application can be found on the RomeFloyd website under the jobs page.

ATLANTA — Legislation supporters say would attract private dollars to historic preservation projects across Georgia is raising fears it could threaten 120 state parks, wildlife management areas and historic sites designated as heritage preserves.

A bill the Georgia House of Representatives passed with little fanfare on a busy Crossover Day in March would let the state sell parcels of up to 15 acres at sites listed as heritage preserves to private entities or nonprofits. Under current law, the state can sell heritage properties only to local governments.

Putting such publicly owned lands in private hands could pave the way for development projects that would go against the intent of the 1975 state law establishing the preserves, the co-directors of a University of Georgia historic and cultural preservation warned in an open letter.

“Limiting public access and permitting development is the opposite intent of the Heritage Act’s purpose to make the state’s unique natural, historical and recreational places ‘available to all Georgians, now and in the future,’ ” wrote Maurice Bailey and Nik Heynen, co-directors of the Cornelia Walker Bailey Program on Land and Agriculture, named to honor a member of Sapelo Island’s Hog Hammock who fought for the survival of the GullahGeechee community there.

Historic preservation advocates in coastal Georgia have been particularly active in bringing public awareness to House Bill 906.

They have raised concerns about a distillery proposed for Butler Island in McIntosh County, part of the Altamaha Wildlife Management Area. A rice plantation there that once housed more than 900 slaves was the site of the largest slave auction in U.S. history in 1859.

But the bill would affect other parts of Georgia where preservationists are eyeing projects that could benefit from an injection of private or nonprofit funding.

The historic state-owned Lapham-Patterson House in Thomasville, built in the Victorian style during the 1880s, is among the state’s heritage preserve sites. But it’s deteriorating with age and needs extensive repairs the cash-strapped state can’t afford, said Georgia Rep. Darlene Taylor, R-Thomasville.

“It takes a lot of money to maintain it,” said Taylor, chief sponsor of House Bill 906. “(But) in today’s budget world, how can we find the money? We still have to fund maternal mortality (prevention), teachers, Medicaid. There’s only so much money.”

Josh Hildebrandt, director of governmental affairs for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, said historic buildings like the LaphamPatterson House are prime candidates to benefit from the proposed legislation, rather than the state parks or wildlife management areas on the list of heritage preserve sites.

“It’s different with a structure,” he said. “Anybody from a homeowner to a historic preservation organization knows what houses and other structures go through from nature and the weather, as opposed to a piece of land that’s used as a deer habitat.”

Taylor said the bill includes safeguards aimed at protecting the historical integrity of heritage properties the state decides to privatize. Proposed sales would be subject to a public hearing and would have to be approved by the Georgia Board of Natural Resources, she said.