With this warm weather you prefer to dive into a swimming pool or pool, but then you have to be able to do that. Many outdoor pools struggle to deploy enough lifeguards and teachers when there are many visitors. A few months ago, outdoor pools wondered if they could open this summer. Can the baths handle it, especially this week?
Bosbad Noord-Sleen urgently needed extra supervisory staff before the swimming season started in April. That is actually still the case, says board member and supervisor Nicole Piening: “Fortunately, we have a very flexible team. There are four of us and we can just close the basic schedule. In warm weather like now, and the accompanying crowds, we all need to work a little harder.”
Piening would hate to have to close the bath if the staff couldn’t handle it: “We do everything we can to prevent that, of course, but in the worst case it could be or you could limit the use. maximum number of visitors. We hope not to experience that.”
The search for extra hands is therefore still ongoing: “We don’t mind working a little harder. It’s a lot of fun to do, but you are also very vulnerable. If someone gets sick, you quickly have a problem Fortunately, we still have many volunteers or people who have worked here before, but we prefer to see a colleague there.”
In the municipality of Tynaarlo, the three swimming pools fall under one foundation. It concerns the indoor pool Aqualaren in Zuidlaren and the outdoor pools De Leembodden in Vries and Lemferdinge in Eelde. They also have a staff shortage there, especially on days like this. The solution: closing the indoor pool after morning jobs: “This way we have enough staff at the outdoor pools to be open responsibly,” explains manager Roelof Rutgers.
“The pool in Zuidlaren is still open in the morning and sometimes in the evening for swimming lessons and stretching laps,” says Rutgers. Furthermore, the attention is mainly on the outdoor pools, where a lot of crowds are expected this week: “Yesterday there were more than a thousand and today it is a degree warmer, so we expect between a thousand and fifteen hundred swimmers per pool.”
On these kinds of days, at least six staff members are present at De Leembodden: at least two people along the waterfront, a reception, catering and someone who works overarching. “It is vital to have sufficient staff,” Rutgers emphasizes.
He also mentions an additional point of attention: asylum seekers and refugees who cannot swim: “We give swimming lessons to people from Eritrea every week, but there are also plenty of visitors who are not skilled in the art of swimming and think they can jump right in. you have to deal with Ukrainians and asylum seekers from other countries. You also want to be able to guarantee safety for them.”