Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Pool Lifts

I visited the web site for High Country Pools of Fort Collins. Rather than selling pool designs, the site was focussed on new requirements by the ADA that all swimming pools with public access must install expensive and resource intense pool lifts.

I confess, the only time I've been in a pool in the last couple decades was to serve as a pool lift for large gangs of little children.

My job as a human pool lift involved lifting young children out of the pool, then throwing them back in.

Being a human pool lift can be fun.

I don't knock mechanical pool lifts. I think it is great that we live in a country with thousands of pools with advanced access devices. I don't see why we need a totalitarian rule from the government that all pools have expensive, resource intensive pool lifts.

if I was wanting pool therapy, the absolute last place I would want to go is to a pool filled with screaming kids. My direct observation is that kids at a pool scream a lot. They have loud animated conversations with their OUTDOOR VOICES. Screaming kids at pools manage to hit high notes that are rarely experienced in other forms of activities.

Different pools reach different markets.

If I was seeking physical therapy in a pool, I would want to go to a pool designed from the ground up for that purpose. In a free society, businesses could seek different markets by having different resources ... such as pool lifts, waterslides, and what not.

The idea that EVERY pool must have a lift is totalitarian. It destroys the important differentiation.

Looking through web sites, I discovered that the big pool lift corporations that passed the law are delighting by the mandates. The ADA rule allows these firms to make out like bandits as cash strapped property owners must scramble to achieve compliance.

All the silly little motels, apartments and other groups that have silly little pools must now find a way to raise their prices, reduce salaries, or reduce other services to pay for the mandated pool lifts.

The therapy companies that offer swimming therapy are loosing one of the features that differentiate their services from the pack.

The law affects public pools, which means a ton of taxpayer money will go to the politically connected pool lift companies that benefit from the law. Every school district must raise taxes or divert some money from the school budget to pay for the lifts.

This law that concentrates benefits on the politically connected few selling pool lifts and spreading the costs on the many is a great example of why our nation is in the economic toilet.

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