Pool Update - Community Center Pool Closed Through Holiday Weekend

As a result of the bombings at the Boston Marathon, the US Embassies have implemented new national security procedures that have extended the normal one day visa issuance process into a three week visa process. This affects the lifeguarding staff for the Broadlands pools as many of the guards are internationals coming from Eastern Europe. High Sierra will be able to provide enough staff for two of our facilities, but is unable to safely staff all 3 of our facilities. These unfortunate circumstances are regrettable are beyond our control. As our primary concern is the safety of our members and guests, the Community Center Pool located at 43008 Waxpool Road will be closed for Memorial Day holiday weekend. This pool is expected to open as scheduled beginning Saturday, June 1. Please visit one of our other lovely facilities to enjoy opening weekend. The Southern Walk Pool is located at 43081 Village Drive and the Summerbrook Pool is located at 21580 Demott Drive. We apologize for the inconvenience and trust that the remainder of the summer will be the best yet. – Sarah Gerstein, General Manager

From High Sierra: This is an industry wide problem this year and has been caused by unforeseen additional security checks at Embassies around the world which has caused delays for our young international Lifeguards. There are simply not enough local lifeguards available to work due to school schedules. We have been heavily recruiting American lifeguards for the past several months with good results but the pool schedules and local lifeguard schedules simply do not match up which leaves the pool industry dependent on the international lifeguards.
“In response to concerns for the national security of the United States, the Department of State subjects visa applicants to a high degree of scrutiny. For most applicants, this involves only a personal interview and finger scans. However, for other applicants, additional procedures are required before a visa can be issued. Please note that ALL applicants can be subject to administrative processing. This is determined by the consular officer at the time of the interview. You may or may not be notified of administrative processing during the interview. Administrative processing might cause possible undetermined delays in the visa issuance process. Should you be subject to administrative processing, the Consular Section will inform you when we reach a final decision. If we refuse the visa, we will provide you with a letter explaining the legal basis for the refusal.”
Therefore, the story begins with an industry behaving within normal guidelines as they have for the last 10 years and suddenly being faced with unexpected additional security procedures, 100% visa denials and ongoing delays from those new security procedures. All these issues and problems are combining to impact our local swimming pool operations.
Once the swimming pool industry realized the problem they immediately contacted the US Embassies, formed an industry small coalition and hired representation to attempt alleviate the 100% visa denials and the delays, unfortunately without success. Ultimately the delays are caused by a National Security concern which has obvious precedence over our business concerns.
We are working every day to try and relieve the situation. - Krasimir Kashinov, High Sierra Pools

 

Well, it's cold today and will be tomorrow, what are the chances of the pool being opened anyway, don't they have a minimum temp for being open?



Thanks for the Heads up Sarah G., now i"m gonna go get my sweater...

 

Hmmmm...and with the economy and job market being the way that it is, why aren't these summer jobs being offered to local citizens? I know of college students who would love this opportunity...

 

Sarah - I'm sure we'll hear from our swim team board, but does this impact the swim team practices at the Community Center pool that are supposed to start on Tuesday?

 

Steve, Have we ever had a lifeguard that is local? I've only ever seen the Russian ones.

 

UPDATE 5/28/13 - All pools are fully staffed and operating under normal schedules.