KANSAS CITY, Mo. — City leaders are not so much afraid of what's in the water, but what's around it.
"It's been suggested by the CDC that pool water that is properly chlorinated and balanced, that the virus can't exist in it. But everywhere else in the facility, it can," said Doug Schroeder, a Kansas City, Missouri city administrator overseeing pools and golf courses
That's why the decision to reopen pools is a hard one.
Roeland Park and Prairie Village have already announced their pools are closed for the summer.
KCMO hopes to make a decision by next week.
"We don't have a lot of deck space, so that's going to really decide how many people we would have at the pool if we open," said KCMO.
It appears most pools will be closed.
Overland Park is considering opening one pool, Tomahawk Ridge, because of its central location and five acres of space.
Guests can sit, properly distanced, on the grass instead of possibly contaminating loungers and chairs. Picnic tables and benches will not be available. The concession stand will likely be closed off.
If the city council decides on May 18 to open Tomahawk Ridge, only 80 people would be let in at a time.
"We would bring them in for hour and a half increments, so basically selling tickets that would get you in for an hour and a half," said Brian Tobin, interim director of the parks and recreation department of Overland Park. "Then we'd clean the facility in an off-hour, then bring another 80 people back in an hour later."
The pool will be closed between guests so staff can sanitize everything.
"Just having to get in and clean all the restrooms, all the ladders and handles throughout the pool will take us a good hour to do," Tobin said.
To stay closed, Overland Park would save just over $1 million. Opening Tomahawk Ridge, factoring in the maximum revenue from the tickets they'd sell, would return $800,000 to the budget. Normally, the pools run on a 50 percent subsidy.
Staff at any pool would have to wear masks. Training lifeguards would be nearly impossible because they can't be socially distanced.
"Our decision will be completely based on safety, and it's going to be a hard decision but when people's lives are at risk we have to make the right one," Schroeder said.
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