Wow. They only had NINE MONTHS to get their shit together between the end of last pool season and the start of this one. Still couldn’t do it.
Last Thursday, they closed it at the last second for “unforeseen circumstances.” When I asked the City secretary what that meant, I got zero response. So I’m guessing it was something embarrassing they are refusing to divulge. Otherwise, why not admit it was “staffing shortages” once again?
[UPDATED 7/1 – it was a burned out pump motor! So…why not just say that? Idiots]
Somebody needs to get chewed out over this. Ultimately, it falls on the pointy head of City Manager DeGraffenreid – who makes over $200,000 per year in salary and benefits yet has been fucking up the pool situation for the last FOUR YEARS!! The guy started out as a YMCA Director, so you’d think he might have a grasp of this kind of thing. Not to mention he’s been on the Lampasas tit for about 13 years now. And you STILL can’t get it right? Sad.
Or maybe it is the fault of the oddly named “Sundae Hein” who is supposedly in charge of the pools. She’s doing a pretty shitty job of it, from my standpoint.
If you keep having staffing shortages you need to RAISE THE WAGE, as I have yelled from a hill for four years now. They FINALLY understood that $7.50/hr was a joke but from what the lifeguards told me last week, it’s now still only $12. STILL a far cry from the $15 it should be.
This isn’t 2021. You can’t blame Covid stimmies and a tight labor market anymore. Things are DEFINITELY softer in the labor market and $15 will get you what you need.
There are roughly 6 lifeguards on duty for six hours, five days a week. The pool is open about 10 weeks (also sad). That works out to 300 x 6 lifeguard hours, roughly. Or 1800 hours. A three dollar raise will cost you $5,400.
Yes, $5,400 in a City budget that is in the tens of millions of dollars. Hell, they wasted $45,000 on the failed Industrial Pork project and have zero to show for it. You could afford NINE YEARS of increased wages for that.
They also handed Mercer $20,000 for a “life safety grant” but don’t have $5,400 to pay local kids to work at the pool for the summer? What gigantic ASSHOLES you are!
So let’s take a look at the last nine days:
Sunday June 23: Closed (used to be open on Sundays in the old days)
Monday June 24: Closed (always been closed on Mondays – maintenance, etc)
Tuesday June 25: open as usual
Wednesday June 26: open as usual
Thursday June 27: CLOSED (‘unforeseen circumstances’ **UPDATED** burnt-out pump motor)
Friday June 28: open as usual
Saturday June 29: CLOSED (staffing shortages)
Sunday June 30: CLOSED (used to be open in the old days)
Monday July 1: CLOSED (scheduled closed as always)
Absolutely pathetic. It’s been closed TWICE as often as it has been open – and during brutal heat indexes, too!
But don’t worry, all the clowns involved will get a 4% raise across the board here in a couple of months.