Florida Swimming Pools

So much to ponder about Pasco's misguided cuts to pools and parks

There will be refreshing dips, kayak trips and boating in lakes in northern North Carolina and later in western New York during the annual summer break from Pasco and Hernando counties.

The lack of chlorine will be good practice for our return to Pasco and the anticipated dearth of public swimming pools next summer. That is a problem Hernando never confronted because government never built a public swimming pool.

Still, it raises so many questions to ponder on the pilgrimage north.

• How come swimming pools are no longer necessities for summertime recreation in Florida?

It wasn't that long ago when Pasco County was kicking around the idea of using tourist tax money to outfit the Wesley Chapel District Park with an Olympic-sized swimming pool in order to draw competitive swim meets and the accompanying spending by families and friends.

Maybe this is all a clever tourism plot. You want to go swimming? Rent a room at a motel with a pool.

• Anyone suspect this statistic is about to decline?

Forty-one percent of children ages 7 to 17 years, and 17.4 percent of adults in the United States, swim at least six times per year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Likewise, adults and children older than age 6 visit a pool 339 million times each year.

• A long, dry season?

The first day of practice for high school swimmers and divers is Aug. 8. No word on where Land O'Lakes, Sunlake, Hudson and River Ridge will practice and hold meets if county commissioners padlock pools Oct. 1.

• What if the building had a different name?

Gov. Rick Scott's political retribution and the end of the state budget year on Thursday closes the opportunity for a new health clinic for the needy in northwest Pasco at the Mike Fasano Hurricane Shelter.

• Does this look like an affluent area filled with swimming pools?

The idea that Pasco County residents have access to their own pools at home or through their neighborhood associations is all wet.

Three-quarters of the single-family homes in Pasco County do not have swimming pools. For visual proof, just drive north on Hicks Road from State Road 52 until you reach Veterans Memorial Park, one of the two swimming pools slated for closure. Not a pool in sight.

• Anyone else notice the irony of closing a swimming pool (because they're so readily available) in the same neck of the woods where the population is needy enough to require a free or low-cost health clinic?

Florida Swimming Pool Safety : Portable Pools Pose Infant and ...

As a Miami, Florida swimming pool accident lawyer sadly knows, swimming pool drowning accidents are a leading cause of death in infants and children, in Florida and around the country. Any South Florida injury attorney with experience in this area is aware of the swimming pool accidental drowning risk to babies and children.

When lay people think of infant, toddler and child swimming pool accidents and accidental drownings, the obvious dangers of in-ground swimming pools come to mind. Decks and diving boards are slippery. The deep end is treacherous. Even the shallow end is above a small child's head. Swimming pool drains pose a suction risk that could entrap infants and children on the pool bottom (a much-discussed topic in the Florida pool industry -- see related drowning injury attorney article links below). Parents and other adults also be aware of the dangers of above-ground pools, where children can slip and fall in the water and drown.

Anyone who has flown into Palm Beach, Fort Myers, Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood or Miami, Florida airports can see that South Florida is dotted with literally thousands of swimming pools. These include pools at private residences, condos and hotels, and public pools in South Fla. communities. Now, the journal Pediatrics has published a report highlighting a backyard child safety hazard that people may not be aware of: portable swimming pools.