No Westminster Pool this Summer

The City of Westminster announces that it will not open its municipal pool this summer.  At a special called meeting Tuesday night, the Westminster City Council voted no on the pool based on two factors outlined during a discussion of recreation priorities, explains Westminster City Administrator David Smith.  “The first thing the City Council had to consider is the new ADA requirement mandating a lift that will get a handicapped person from the edge of the pool into the water and then out of the pool.  That is a cost that they had to consider and that new federal regulation is effective January 31, 2013.  The other issue is that our pool building is at a much higher elevation than the pool itself.  Therefore, if we have a handicap lift, we may then invite a number of handicap people to use our pool, which would be great, however, there is not a real good way for them to get from the pool up to the building or from the building down to the pool.  A new pool building would need to be built down at the elevation of the pool in addition to the lift, so you have more costs to consider.  The Council opted at this point to go ahead and decree to not open the pool this summer.” With the City of Westminster closing its municipal swimming pool this summer, there will be no public swimming pools in Oconee County.