The Town of North Hempstead has revoked summer camps’ permits to the town’s pool in Manorhaven following repeated problems that forced the pool’s closing due to concerns over hygiene, North Hempstead Commissioner of Parks Jill Weber announced on Thursday.
Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth issued a statement saying that the closure is “necessary for the benefit of the majority of pool users.”
The pool, Bosworth said, has closed at “larger than normal” numbers due to defecation and vomiting in areas of the pool that are designated for camps.
“This week we had incidents requiring the pool closing for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday,” Bosworth said. “The week of July 25, we were closed Monday Tuesday and Wednesday. Each closure period lasted approximately two hours; some types of incidents can take three hours to resolve.”
Port Washington Children Center camps use the pool five days a week and bus campers to the pool hourly, said Donna Preminger, the Children Center’s executive director.
Preminger said the town’s ban affects about 350 campers from the children center from three different camp divisions The permits allow the camp to bring 45 children at once.
As an alternative, Bosworth suggested that camps use the recently renovated Whitney Pond Pool and North Hempstead Beach Park, noting that Whitney has “extensive capacity on weekdays” and lifeguards assigned to accommodate camps.
“The beach is another excellent choice for learning swimmers since it is not a tidal area and the water is very calm,” Bosworth said.
Bosworth’s statement included pictures of the Whitney Pond Pool’s renovated pool area.
But an email from Preminger to the campers’ families included a picture of mold on the bathroom floor of the Withney Pond Pool.
“The bathroom is covered in mold and it’s unsanitary,” Preminger said. “They want our children to use the bathroom and not the pool, but how are they going to use a dirty bathroom?”
In Preminger’s email, she said that the Children Center spoke with the Whitney Pond Pool supervisor, and was told that their bathrooms are both “unsanitary and unsafe.”
Bosworth noted that the hygiene problems are occurring in the camp area, but the entire pool is connected, so there is no way to tell exactly where the incident is happening, Preminger said.
“Our staff has verified that every incident arose in the camp section of the pool, not in any other areas including the zero entry area that is used by very young children and their parents,” Bosworth said.
Camps have also been exceeding the number of campers permitted in the pool at once, which led to non-camp residents to complain to the town, Bosworth said.
The Children Center was required to apply for pool applications in January, Preminger said, and for three hours a week, the center’s Port Day Camp group exceeds the permitted amount by seven campers.
“We didn’t know we’d be exceeding the amount of campers permitted in January,” Preminger said
Preminger said that she sent a proposal to Weber saying that the camps would reduce the number of campers being sent to the pool at once, but she was denied.
Weber did not immediately respond to the request for comment.
