By Sam Richards

Staff writer

Tuesday, August 5 (8:30 a.m.): Laura Townsend said she’s a firm believer in the value of the Family Swim times set aside for residents to spend some quality time with family members in the pool.

But she also believes in obeying the rules, one of them being that kids under 18 who come in during Family Swim hours at Hillside Pool need to vacate the pool when the designated hours are over. Usually going to that pool five afternoons a week in the summer, Townsend said she’s seen an increase in young families overstaying their welcome at Family Swim time and sometimes being quite rude about it.

Over the final two weeks of June, Townsend said there were issues almost every afternoon of families with children staying longer than the designated time (on weekdays, out of the pool by 1 p.m., and off the pool grounds by 1:15). One Friday, as she sat poolside, she said, she heard a child crying. It was 1:25 p.m.

“I got up and told the family they were 10 minutes late in leaving,” Townsend said in an email to the Rossmoor Walnut Creek (RWC) Board and officials. The grandmother, she said, told Townsend to “mind my own business.”

Family Swim times are from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Anyone 18 or younger must be gone from the pool facility 15 minutes later.

The problem hasn’t always been with young swimmers. One afternoon that same week, a man was having an excessively loud poolside conversation on his cellphone, with the person on the other end on speaker for anyone nearby to hear.

“Four or five” pool users asked the man to tone it down or take the conversation elsewhere, Townsend said. The man rudely waved them all off, and continued with his loud conversation for a while.

There is a “core group” of about 20 residents who frequent the Hillside pool in the afternoons, said Townsend, who believes most of them would agree there’s been a growing poolside problem.

“That kind of thing shouldn’t happen on a beautiful afternoon when you’re trying to read a book or knit,” she said.

Jackie Carlisle, Rossmoor’s Fitness/Aquatics manager, said she’s heard from a number of Rossmoor residents about young swimmers not leaving by the proper time, or about other rule violations that can throw cold water on what’s supposed to be a peaceful visit to the pool.

“At the beginning of summer, people tend to forget the rules,” Carlisle said. “And there will always be people who push the boundaries as far as they can go.”

To that end, Carlisle has directed her staff of lifeguards to be more proactive, to remind people of the rules, to provide ample warning – usually 10 minutes during the week, 15 minutes on the busier weekend days – for when young swimmers need to be out of the water, and away from the pool area altogether. The lifeguards have also gotten some additional training on de-escalating potentially combative situations and on listening.

“Simple acknowledgment goes a long way,” Carlisle said.

Has that been working? Yes, Carlisle said – usually.

“Lifeguards get occasional pushback, and people can be dismissive,” Carlisle said. But the lifeguards are there for everyone’s safety, she said, to enforce the rules at each pool and make sure “there’s a peaceful transition from one program to the next,” she added.

There are rules covering eating by the pool (you can’t do it) and about those cellphones, too, Carlisle said. They aren’t allowed at the Tice Pool at all, and anyone using them in other public settings must either hold the phones to their ears or use earbuds – no conversations on speaker are allowed.

Ultimately, Carlisle said, Rossmoor residents are responsible for their guests’ behavior in the swimming pools. Residents whose families repeatedly cause problems can receive brief suspensions of pool privileges, which would have to be approved by the general manager. In her 14 months in Rossmoor, two residents have received such temporary suspensions for transgressions at the pool at Tice Creek Fitness Center.

Townsend praised the response of Carlisle and other RWC staffers to address the rule-breaking at Hillside Pool.

“The lifeguards shouldn’t have to assert authority like that, but they’re making an effort,” she said.