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Pool Wins Award
THEY’RE LIFESAVERS
By Jene Lyons, Deputy General Manager
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As Watergate’s Outdoor Pool season draws to a close, it is worth taking a moment to appreciate the good fortune we’ve had these past few summer months.
As you may know, pool management companies — among other businesses — are still feeling the repercussions from the year-and-a-half pandemic crisis. While our own contractor, American Pools, continued to train (often in Watergate pools) and place new lifeguards, it experienced a large number of guards leaving employment in early August due to “local sports, early school starting times … or having to quarantine prior to arrival, and all this on top of the already devastating national labor shortage,” detailed Austin Woodard, Regional Vice President of American Pool LLC, in a letter to his clients.
As a result of the dearth of lifeguards, many outdoor pool seasons were unexpectedly cut short — or never came to be at all. Aquia Harbour, a gated community in Stafford, VA with more than 2,000 homes had to shut down one of its two pools in July. And a second pool was kept open only on weekends through mid-August, “all because of the lifeguard shortage,” Interim General Manager Ken Laenger noted. The neighboring Olympus Condominium pool, here in Alexandria, never even opened this season. Watergate was much more fortunate. With the easing of the pandemic restrictions, out came the Watergate pool lounge chairs, tables and umbrellas, followed immediately by a full retinue of lifeguards and a lot of happy residents taking full advantage of their summer oasis.
Sasa Bojic, our Pool Manager, and her team of lifeguards at WAL were recognized as American Pool’s “Pool of the Month” in August. This award highlighted the excellence our lifeguards display as they work to help residents and guests enjoy the Indoor and Outdoor Pools.
“I’m so glad to have Sasa...as our Pool Manager,” a WAL resident tweeted on our Association’s Twitter feed.
WAL’s lifeguards were American Pool’ s “Pool of the Month”
in August. Photo: Joe Vecchio
