The local YMCA indoor pool was closed again for the second day in a row due to some little kid doing "doo doo" in the pool.  I'm really sick of the pool DoS, so I wrote them a letter:

November 4th, 2009

Dear YMCA of Greater Charlotte Staff -

I have been a member of the Charlotte YMCA since 2005, and attend the Siskey branch daily to use the indoor pool.  I employ a strict regimen of swimming 2050 meters per day, six days per week.  Due to my work schedule and to avoid times when the lanes dedicated to lap swimming are crowded, I typically arrive at 8:30PM and swim until closing on weekdays.  On the weekends I swim for 45 minutes beginning around noontime.

Occasionally the Siskey pool is closed due to incidents with small children using the pool as their personal lavatory.  Over the past several years this seemed to happen once a month, sometimes twice a month.  However, the last several weeks it appears that the frequency of these "accidents" is increasing.  For example, the Siskey pool was closed both yesterday and today due to "accidents".

As a member who uses the YMCA solely for the indoor swimming pool facilities, these incidents are forcing me to consider other options in the area.  Ideally, since I believe my membership allows me to visit any of the YMCA branches in Charlotte, my other options should be other branches in the area.  Unfortunately, none of the other YMCA branches (Ballantyne Village, Morrison, Weddington, Hemby) near my location in Ballantyne are equipped with indoor swimming pools.  Additionally, even the branch closest to my place of employment, Steele Creek, does not have a pool.  The only other options this leaves me with are traveling a distance to another branch that does have an indoor pool (Harris, for example) or terminating my membership and pursuing something else.

As I would rather not take the latter course of action specified above, I would like to suggest a few improvements that may assist with this problem:

• Restrict children under a certain age from using the indoor swimming pool.  I realize this may require the elimination of some swimming programs.
• Provide a notice on the Siskey (or any branch's) section of the YMCA Charlotte website when the pool has been closed.  Alternatively, perhaps an eMail distribution list of branch "outages" (an IT term, but nonetheless it seems appropriate) would be helpful so members can instantly become aware when the pool or any other part of the facility is closed due to an incident.
• Add indoor pools at more of the YMCA facilities.  When I took a tour of the Morrison branch back in 2005 there was talk of an indoor pool to be built in the facility and ready by the end of 2006.  Apparently this never materialized.  I believe there is a large demand for another indoor pool in at least one of the branches in the Ballantyne area.  I'm sure YMCA membership would grow if this were to happen.

With the exception of these incidents, I have overall been quite happy with my YMCA membership.  Please feel free to contact me regarding this letter via either of the following methods:

Office phone: 704-xxx-xxxx
Electronic Mail: prox@prolixium.com

Sincerely,

Mark Kamichoff

We'll see what happens.  Tomorrow I'm going to try The Mecklenburg County Aquatic Center.  The commute is going to be a pain, though.

Update: I received the following (I've censored some of it) on the 10th of November:

Hi Mark,

My name is Nzr Znharl, I'm the Ndhngvpf Qverpgbe here at the Siskey YMCA.  Your email made its way into my inbox yesterday and I wanted to touch base with you.  First off, thanks so much for writing such a well written and explanatory email.  We appreciate our member's feedback and definitely want to please all that we can.

You're very smart for coming to the pool around 8:30pm, which is the best time to swim laps because of the slow traffic flow.  I was at the pool earlier this week when the two incidents occurred.  I want to address the bullet points in your email that I can control and possibly help you out a bit in the future.  The incident on 11/3 was [...]  We had to vacuum the pool, cancel the swim lessons, reschedule them all and close the pool for the evening.  We're not sure of the details on the incident on 11/4 but we know [...].

We unfortunately can not control situations like these once they happen, we can only implement certain procedures to help notify the members.  You will find this to be the issue at every Aquatic facility whether it is the Y or a local swim club.  The ones that never close are the ones I would be afraid of going to, I have heard of some pools risking the safety of their members and not closing the pool when a situation occurs in order to please their swimmers.  We do have an Aquatics Hotline you are able to call to see if the pool has closed.  Maybe on your ride over to Siskey you could call the hotline just to ensure the pool is open.  The hotline is not updated daily, only if/when an incident occurred that would require the pool to close. The number is 704-716-4230.

The YMCA of Greater Charlotte does require all children who are not potty trained to wear plastic pants over top of there swim diaper.  The lifeguards and pool managers help enforce this rule.  Our Swim Lesson Parent Letter also states to not bring your child to the pool if he/she is feeling sick and to take your child to the restroom prior to their swim lesson.

Restricting children under a certain age is unfortunately not the answer the problem, the Siskey YMCA is here for all ages.  We're not able to update the website, but we can/do update the hotline number on an as needed basis.

I hope this helps you out a bit.  I do apologize for the inconvenience of the pool closings.  As a lap swimmer, I know the frustration when you just can't wait to get into the pool only to find out it's closed, two nights in a row!  That is, as you already know a very rare thing (two consecutive nights).

We do appreciate your continued support and hope you choose to continue to visit the Siskey Aquatics Facility.  Please utilize the hot line and please let me know if there's anything I can ever help you out with!

Thanks so much,

Nzr

Nzr Znharl
Ndhngvpf Qverpgbe
YMCA of Greater Charlotte - Siskey YMCA
3127 Weddingon Road, Matthews NC 28105

Should I really be afraid to swim in pools that actually have age limits, and limit folks who may have accidents?  I guess I'm taking my life into my hands by going to MCAC!

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