Guest editorial: The new Kennett Y pool policy must be revisited
04/10/2023 10:33PM ● By Steven HoffmanIt's not likely the Kennett Area Y made any friends by announcing the closing of its outdoor pool to everyone except its swim team members and enrolled campers.
Kennett Y executive director Nic Legere confirmed the move in a March 22 letter to Linda Cangi, a member who had questioned what was going on. He later deferred further comments to Jenny James Lee, vice president for Marketing of YMCA of the Brandywine Valley, who explained the reasons for the decision. They are threefold: The floodplain, the lifeguard shortage and the diminishing usage of the pool.
While Lee’s explanations have some basis in fact, they nonetheless give the impression of the Y’s lack of desire to try to find solutions.
The Red Clay Creek, for example, is an arbitrary little stream that runs in the floodplain just a few feet from the pool. It’s been rolling along there for the past 50-or-so years that it and the pool complex have been neighbors. Sometimes when the weather takes a bad turn, the stream overflows its banks and even floods. When the mud gets into the pool, the Y has to close it for awhile and clean it up.
Lee said when swimmers are deprived of the use during the clean-up period, they ask for refunds for the time they had to miss, and that is troublesome.
What Lee didn’t say is that during the COVID-19 pandemic, many other events and contracted affairs had to be cancelled. But, unlike the Y, the administrators of these other events and services sprang into action and figured out how to fix the problems.
Take the Kennett Symphony for example, which sells tickets ahead of time and had to cancel in 2020. They gave the ticket-holders options: Use the credits toward future concerts, take a refund or consider the payment a contribution to the orchestra.
Hank’s Place in Chadds Ford was destroyed by a flood. Its owner wowed to come back and is in the process of rebuilding even stronger.
Churches held services with spaced seating outside and received enthusiastic responses. Restaurants found ways to offer dining in outdoor spaces.
Brandywine Red Clay Alliance executive director Jim Jordan, who knows a lot about the creek, said the last time the Red Clay had an incident was 2021, and it was a “bank overflow, not a flood . . . It was minor.” He called the floods “infrequent.”
The decline in the number of available lifeguards and pool attendants reflects a related crisis faced by businesses all over the world when COVID-!9 arrived. People couldn’t go to work.
It was a challenge not only for the Y, but for restaurants, hospitals, stores and school districts.
And yet, the schools kept picking up kids, restaurants kept serving dinner and people even kept taking vacations. That’s because the owners and operators got creative and offered bonuses, crisis training and alternative protocols for employees.
In order to keep the lifeguards overseeing the water, did the Y dig in their heels and set their sights on rounding up candidates very early in the game—perhaps the preceding autumn? If not, it would have been wise to do so.
One observer noted that the other private pools in the Kennett area like Greenwood and the country club did not shut down for lack of guards, and neither did the New Jersey beaches. It appears the other Y pools that the Kennett Y directed its members to use instead of the pool in Kennett—including West Chester, Upper Main Line, Jennersville and Brandywine— didn’t either.
Did Kennett offer sign-up bonuses and other methods of attracting staff?
Lee’s third reason for the shutdown is puzzling. She writes that even before COVID-19 the numbers enrolled in pool membership were going down.
And yet, in a town where attendance at brew fests, parades, on-the-street dining, Mushroom Festival and other events is growing, it is doubtful that on hot summer days these people have chosen to stay away from the only pool that is affordable and conveniently located in the middle of town.
Few observers can honestly say the number of people who like to go swimming and be with their friends outside in hot weather has declined.
Is there a marketing problem? This Y certainly has the space for people of all ages to come, cool off, schmooze around with friends and bring their kids. Generally, people respond positively when something they like is going on, especially if it is nearby and affordable. If these decreasing numbers bear out, what is the problem?
Some other pools do things that attract clients. How about special events like – as community activist Nick Perigo suggested – some “Hawaiian Nights?” How about the last day before closing a Bring-Your-Dog-To-Swim Day? How about guest band music or celebrity visit nights?
Y member Mike Cangi, a Kennett Square resident and father of three young children, is so concerned that he offered to organize help: finding guards, clean-up crews, financial support, anything that would aid the reopening without any obligation from the Y.
His offer was refused. He has since organized a petition urging the reversal of the current policy.
The Y is a national non-profit with a serious mission: “The Y is committed to partnering with young people to create stronger communities and a more equitable society for all of us. We envision a future in which all people – no matter who they are or where they come from – get the support they need, when they need it, to reach their full potential.”
In a statement on “Community Needs” it says this: “We work with the communities we serve to provide solutions to some of society’s most pressing needs.”
In this regard, it has fallen short, because this community has a large population of moderate- and lower-income residents – who, incidentally, the town has built its prosperity upon. Many of the adults like to go swimming in the summer and see the pool as a healthy and needed resource for their children.
In towns that have faced much more dire challenges than a creek overflowing its banks, its residents appear on newscasts with their surviving pets under one arm and their remaining belongings in the other hand.
Days after the floods, fires and tornadoes, they say, “We are down, but we will return.”
The Y must show its grit and creativity. It must go beyond suggesting that its members find swimming pools elsewhere. When the Y stands and faces its neighbors, tells them it loves them and says, "We have obstacles, but we shall overcome," it will be admired and responded to.
This new policy must be revisited.