Today the Maintenance Team started the end-of-the-year chore of closing our apartment community's pool. I cannot say I am sad about this! I think there is so much work and worry about the community's pool that I wonder sometimes if it is worth having one - though I know it is, of course. But why does it have to be so much trouble???
I was here for 3 years and then I was absent from the property for about a year and a half. It took those three years of supervising the pool on a daily basis to get Residents to learn the Pool Rules and why they were important. It only took the next pool season to un-do all that teaching. Last year, all hell broke loose at the pool because, frankly, the Manager didn't seem to exercise much discipline herself in her approach to pool supervision. Residents broke several glass tables in the pool and they had to drain it and clean on a couple of different occasions. There was all sorts of liquor being consumed there on a routine basis, not to mention litter strewn all over, and all kinds of dirt caked around the perimeter of the pool.
I was fearful of what 2011 would be like. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that most of my Residents read their rules, although a couple thought nothing of bringing their pets with them. Now, I ask you - do you think dogs with a ton of hot fur, enjoy having to lie on 110 degree concrete in the middle of a 90 degree day? And really, nothing much happened this year. It's just that it is exhausting to have to close the pool every day at 9:00 P.M. It's disheartening to find cigarette butts littering the poolside. And it is upsetting to find unpleasantries in the Men's room urinals .... For the most part though, this year was okay.
I hope next year to install a key fob entry system. That will be expensive, but at least I won't have to always worry that people from the neigboring apartment communities won't be in the pool without permission. Oh wait! I guess that won't stop the Residents from going in there after midnight to do a little skinny dipping though, will it? Yeah - back to my original assessment. I hate the pool. I am glad it is time to close it for the season.
