ARVADA, Colo. — The summertime news people have been waiting for has arrived.
Under the amended safer-at-home order, announced Monday, swimming pools will be allowed to reopen once draft guidelines are approved.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) is still seeking public input before issuing a final draft of guidelines on Thursday.
"I began speaking with aquatics professionals at the beginning of March, actually," said Christina Barkley, the district manager for the Leyden Rock Metropolitan District in Arvada. "If they felt like it was something we would even be able to do. Are we going to open? Is this realistic? This is the heart of our community, this community center, the pool. We have a lot of young families."
Barkley said she believes with her plan, the Leyden Rock Community pool could be ready to open within two weeks. But, for larger city-run pools it's a different story.
"We're struggling right now to decide what to do," said Kit Newland, Lakewood's director of community resources. "We had previously thought we would keep the pools and all the rec centers and other facilities closed through the end of July."
9NEWS talked with Barkley and Newland about their plans and challenges to re-opening pools.
(Editor's note: Answers have been edited for context and clarity.)
9NEWS: What is your plan for opening the Leyden Rock Community pools?
Barkley: We had made a determination at the time of the creation of the plan to number one restrict it to 35 people in-water, in-facility at any one time.
The other main change that we're looking at with this plan is using a reservation system and this reservation system is really important for us to be able to keep track of the numbers of people that are in the gates at one time.
The other really big part of the plan is just to ensure that we are doing the utmost with cleaning and disinfection. Really what we've changed with that is going from 3 days a week professional cleaning to every single day disinfecting.
We're also implementing cleaning by the pool monitor staff during a 30-minute break between each one of the blocks of time that we have for reservations.
What is the challenge with opening larger city-run swimming pools?
Newland: We had made the decision to furlough a large majority of our full-time employees. Previous to that, about a month earlier we had decided to furlough almost all of our part-time employees. The city (of Lakewood) is also on a hiring freeze right now.
We weren't able to get our lifeguarding staff, our pool staff up and running, and trained for this summer. So, in order to get pools up and running specifically, it takes at least two weeks and I'm probably being conservative when I say that, more like three or four weeks to get everything back in place and we'll have staff that need to go through training if we can even get our staff to come back.
Are you confident that the plan for your neighborhood pool will keep people safe?
Barkley: We want to align with (state) recommendations and guidance and we feel like if we do that that we can really provide the opportunity for our residents to have the fun, have the time in the water, have the physically distanced activities and use the amenity like they’re paying for.
I think that we would realistically be looking at perhaps a June 13th opening which would be the following Saturday.
We need to make sure that we have everything precisely how we want it before we go ahead and say yes we’re ready to go.
With restrictions of up to 50 people, is it even feasible to open larger city-run swimming pools?
Newland: We haven’t made a final decision yet. We’re debating and talking about what the next choice will be.
It’s extremely challenging and not only that but the amount of revenue that we can generate from outdoor pools is pretty minimal especially when you start talking about how the numbers being so restricted. So, it's a challenge for us indeed.
But, we also understand that the community really looks forward to their recreation in the summer pools and camps and things like that.
Parks and Recreation directors with Denver, Aurora, and Highlands Ranch all had similar responses. Denver will not open its pools until July at the earliest depending on the final draft of guidelines.
The City of Aurora will begin efforts to reopen pools after the state guidelines are out, but no final decisions have been made.
The Highlands Ranch Community Association will begin a phased-in approach. Lap swimming may be allowed as soon as next week, depending on guidelines with open swimming sessions likely starting in July.
The YMCA of Metro Denver will also start a phased-in approach starting with lap swimmers, but depending on state guidelines, its outdoor pools may start with scaled back open swim sessions starting on June 15. YMCA will also use a reservation system.
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