Community center seeking drain covers

Despite the frigid temperatures December has brought upon residents in Central New York, many communities are thinking about swimming pools. In particular, grates that cover drains in the bottoms of pools.
In Skaneateles, the town board met early Monday morning to discuss the Skaneateles Community Center’s drains in response to national legislation requiring swimming pools to be equipped with grates to cover drains that could potentially harm facility users. The deadline to install drain covers that are ANSI/ASME compliant was Dec. 19, which many were unaware of, said Director Matt Major.
According to Major, while the community center has not had any incidents of injury to pool users because of the drains, the facility needs to comply.
Regardless of the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act, which was enacted following the death of Virginia Graeme Baker when she became trapped in a spa drain in Florida, there are several size drain grates that have not been manufactured or are in the stages of manufacturing which makes them unavailable to those who are required to have them.
According to Major, the ones needed at the community center have not been manufactured yet.
“They’re forcing something without really having things lined up,” Major said.
Once the correct grates are manufactured, they would have to be approved by Onondaga County and then reviewed by an engineer.
Deputy Supervisor Ellen Kulik said the town and facility need to make a good faith effort to comply with the legislation because she and others do not want to have a small child wander into the pool area and get injured if their hair or a part of their body gets pulled into the drain.
“I think we need to document our efforts to find the grates,” said town attorney Patrick Sardino.
He suggested the town have different companies come out to talk about the grates needed. As of right now, there is no estimate on the cost per grate or labor to have them installed, though labor alone could cost up to $30,000, Major said.
The main concern for the time being are the wading pools and “water works” areas where small children, such as toddlers, are playing. The area where children generally play is equipped with four drains.
However, Major and buildings and grounds foreman Dave Alfreds said they believe that if one drain is covered, the other three continue to work and do not cause a vacuum. Alfreds was making efforts to contact the pool manufacturer to find out if that is the case as of Monday morning.
Until the community center can obtain the correct size grate covers for its pool drains, the board suggested that all efforts and steps taken to ensure the safety of guests at the center be documented. Administrators at the community center will also be taking action to make sure all employees in the pool area, particularly lifeguards, are trained in the event of an incident.
Though the concern is suction, Sardino said it is “more important to have some kind of que to shut the drains down from the office” where a kill switch is installed to shut off all drains. With a signal of some sort known by all lifeguards, the drains could then be turned off without causing undue alarm.
“It’s not just one incident,” Sardino said of the reason for the legislation and subsequent safety measures that have been put in place. He added that there have been hundred incidents over the last several years that have culminated and brought the law about.
For more information on pool and spa safety and the new national regulations, visit the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Web site at cpsc.gov/whatsnew.html#pool. To download and view a PDF copy of the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act, log onto cpsc.gov/pssa.pdf.

CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: swimming, drains, suction
EDITION: Skaneateles Press

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