One public swimming pool is not enough

Our city of more than 80,000 people has only one public outdoor swimming pool, Bicentennial Pool, from Memorial Day until Labor Day. This pool is woefully inadequate to meet the needs of the thousands of children in our community who would like to swim in an outdoor pool in the summer. Bicentennial Pool has only one 90-minute session per day for recreational swimming on weekdays, from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. Recently, I tried to take my grandchildren to that session, and we were turned away, as were many other people. My 3-year-old grandson was inconsolable.

It turns out that there is a shortage of lifeguards in the city of Santa Fe because the city only pays $12 per hour to lifeguards, whereas the private pools in our city, and public pools in places like Los Alamos, I have been told, pay nearer to $15 per hour. So, once the city has trained people to be lifeguards, they go to work at other pools, rather than city pools.

This problem is invisible to the wealthier segment of Santa Fe society because they have access to private pools — where it seems they employ the lifeguards who have been trained at public expense. My grandchildren do not have such access — nor do thousands of other kids in this town. What kind of city is this that denies its children access to a public swimming pool in the summer?

Esther Kovari

Santa Fe