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The GPOA Board of Directors were faced with a
hard decision this year. The board voted to make the pool a
no lifeguard pool for the 2005 year. This means the
pool will be a swim at your own risk, no lifeguard on duty. The
pool will have new signs placed at all visual locations that it is a
swim at your own risk area--no lifeguards on duty.
How will this affect everyone who uses the pool?
Since there would be no lifeguards all persons using the pool must be
18 or older or be accompanied by a person 18 years
old or older. All parents would have to make sure to watch their
children closely. This rule is from our insurance company, not a
Board decision.
The Board discussed this with other associations that
have done this. The result is they like it and would not go back
to a guarded pool. It provides the ability to allow the
pool to be open for more hours during the
day and children tend to be more well behaved with their parents
watching them.
The only employee at the pool will now be a card checker
at the pool entrance. The monitorwill check pool cards to ensure
that only members in good standing and their guests
with proper identification of address and age may enter. But this
person will not be a certified lifeguard and will not be watching the
water.
Why is the board looking at this? We are trying to
protect Guilbeau Park from law suit risk which we are not covered
for. With lifeguards the liability risk
increases because there are certain exclusions in our
insurance contract where the guards are not covered. These
exclusions are with all insurance companies that work with homeowners
associations. Since the guards are Guilbeau employees, Guilbeau
Park could be held at fault. Any law suit would hold the
Association liable as a whole. That means everyone's investments
in their homes could be jeopardized by one law suit, whether it be a
false claim or not. It was not an easy decision, but based on all
the information presented to us it is the only one we could responsibly
make.
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