Bloomington city pools open for residents as summer begins

Bryan Park Pool and Mills Pool opened Friday May 25, giving patrons the extended Memorial Day weekend to enjoy the water and sun. \nBut the patrons were not the only people excited for opening day: the pool staff has been preparing for it for more than a month. \nIU student and lifeguard Nickie Schaad said she applied for rehire in February and called the pool once a week to find out when the new manager would begin hiring for the summer.\nSchaad and co-workers Whitney Stankovic, an IU sophomore, and senior Jenna McKee are returning lifeguards at Bryan Park Pool. Schaad, Stankovic, McKee and their co-workers began cleaning Mills and Bryan Park pools two weeks before they opened. In addition to the multiple professional certificates lifeguards are required to have, they also went through refresher training and pool procedures before opening day, they said.\n“They are really strict about training here,” Mckee said. Stankovic and Schaad nodded in agreement, saying they had training sessions every Monday during the summer. \n“We will live here this summer,” Stankovic said.\nDespite the strict training and long hours, the three lifeguards are happy to be back at the pool. \n“I love the kids and the people I work with. The people are definitely one of the things that make this job so fun,” Stankovic said. \nAndrea Basile, 15, is one of those people, and she did not want to miss a moment of being at the pool. She had her mom drop her off at Bryan Park around noon on opening day.\n“Today I’m just here swimming laps,” said Basile. “But most of the time I’m either swimming laps or with my friends.” \nBasile and her family, including six siblings, live 10 minutes from Bryan Park and are regular pool patrons. She said coming to the pool is one of her favorite summer activities.\n“It’s a lot of fun to play around with my brothers,” Basile said. With five younger brothers, she said she enjoys being able to come to the pool because they have room to spread out but can still hang out together. \nBasile’s younger brothers range in age from 8-year-old twins to 13 years old. And although they have their big sister to look out for them while they are in the pool, not all the children enjoying the water are as fortunate.\n“In the first month the pool is open, there (are) a good amount of rescues,” Schaad said, “because there are a lot of young swimmers still testing their limits.” \nStankovic agreed, saying, “Kids don’t know the rules or that the diving pool is actually... deep.” \nBut fewer problems occur after the first month, Schaad said. She said the lifeguards work hard at enforcing the rules to prevent accidents before they occur. \nThe lifeguards have the authority to make people take swim tests before going in deep water, and they said they pay special attention to children in the water by themselves.