Well, looks like we’ll have to sit and wait while the Goldfish swim at the “mezzanine level” to discuss “capital improvement” away from the prying eyes of the taxpaying citizen. “Capital improvements” are the very expensive and usually huge wastes of money like the Old City Hall remodel, the Hostess House, the Mountain Bike Trails and shit like that. Not surprising they do it all hidden away from the camera.
So, I’ll kill a little time by going over the incident a few weeks ago that sent three pool-goers to the hospital after being overcome by fumes.
You’d think an incident that sent three pool goers to the hospital might be mentioned at City Hall in an open forum. Maybe Finley could explain to City council what exactly happened. You know – in the interest of “transparency” an all.
You’d be wrong. Not a peep about it at the last council meeting (which I had to suffer through after the fact, as I was on vacation)
We DID get some headlines from the Dispatch – which came from a “news release” that was “provided by the City”. In other words, they gave their one-sided story. A story that paints an inaccurate picture, I might add.
From the 6/29/21 Dispatch:
Three patrons of the Hanna Springs Swimming Pool were overcome and/or complained about an odor that could have been chlorine. Pool staff immediately contacted emergency personnel, who responded to render aid to those affected.
[False. Emergency personnel did not show up for at LEAST 15 minutes. I’m guessing the staff freaked out and hoped the kid would be alright on his own after puking a few times and failed to call 911 immediately. If they DID immediately contact EMS, then it took EMS 15 minutes to travel an entire 4 blocks or so to the pool. Highly doubtful. It is FAR more likely the pool staff hesitated. But I don’t expect Finley to tell the truth about that. I had friends who were at the pool during this entire ordeal, which is how I know what really happened]
All three patrons were examined further at Advent Health Rollins Brook and released by 7 p.m.
[Ouch. Three swimmers sent to the emergency room. I’ve been to the emergency room before. It costs about $3,000 just to walk in the door – add another $1800 if the ambulance brought you. Who paid for all that? The City? I’d sure demand it if it was MY kid who got gassed!]
City officials said the pool’s pump and motor were off temporarily for repairs and restarted approximately 20 minutes prior to the incident, however it is undetermined whether any correlation existed between the repairs and the odor incident.
[Why in hell would you schedule repairs during swim time? The pool is only open 35 hours a week (out of 168 hours), thanks to Finley causing a labor shortage with his shitty $7.25 wage. The pool is closed ALL DAY on Sunday and Monday. What was being repaired? Finley doesn’t tell us. What I DO know is the workers were still there when the fumes hit – because they came running out of that wooden gate to the left of where the poisonous chemicals are kept.]
[It is “undetermined” whether any correlation existed between the repairs and the odor incident? LOL. Well, then it is one hell of a coincidence, isn’t it?? Again, this is typical Finley-speak to cover his ass. He said the same horseshit during the Great Ransomware Attack of 2019 when he was “unsure” whether every City computer going down at the same time was related or not]
Parks & Recreation staff and Lampasas Fire Department personnel inspected all mechanical areas and found no indication of mechanical failure or leak, according to the news release.
[This is meaningless. It was likely human error. If you accidentally back over a kid in the parking lot at Wal-Mart, you don’t tell the cop “I don’t get it! There was no mechanical failure of my vehicle” and then drive off. It doesn’t work that way.]
The city staff also discussed the incident with Commercial Swim – a Central Texas pool contractor – to seek any additional insight on what might have precipitated the incident. Pool mechanical systems were inspected overnight and early Friday morning, and all were found to be operating normally, city officials said. The pool water is filtered and disinfected using liquid bleach.
[Again – human error wouldn’t show up as “mechanical failure”. Also, why does Finley tell us the pool water is filtered and disinfected with liquid bleach?? Is it to draw suspicion away from the “chlorine” smell everyone said they sniffed? Are they all supposed to think the “chlorine smell” wasn’t actually from the pool but maybe some freak deposit of naturally-occurring chlorine gas located right near the pool? Sorry, but the pool DOES use chlorine….AND sulfuric acid. It says so RIGHT ON THE DOOR of the chemical closet there].
Zero doubt in my mind this was human error. The only other explanations are
- Mass sensory hallucinations of smelling chlorine by dozens of people all at the same time….OR
- Some wacky prankster smuggled a tank of chlorine gas into the pool area and released it as a joke. That seems unlikely.
Now, do I think someone should be fired over this? Probably not. Hell, the IT Department let ransomware hackers into the City network to ruin about $42,000 worth of equipment a couple years ago. This is small potatoes compared to that. Nobody died or anything. Just some poor kid puking his guts out all over the place in front of dozens of people. Just rub some dirt on that.
But we’ll never know what REALLY happened since Finley couldn’t bother to mention it at the City council meeting to explain the situation….and Mayor “Transparency” Monroe is probably just fine with that.