Well she needs you this Saturday from 10am until.

We need volunteers to:

• help erect a couple of permanent, all weather ping pong tables.  Do you think 236 ping pong balls will last us all of next summer?
• help clean the pool filters.  This will be heavy and dirty work, and I’m sure any volunteers will be offered “refreshments” commensurate with their efforts.
• help paint the ceilings in the men’s and women’s changing rooms, AND help pick some very sleek and silky colors with which to paint the women’s room walls.

So come on down and help if you can, you’ll be most welcome.

Time: 10am
Place: Glenwood Pool
Who: You!

In the meantime we have to put it to bed for the winter.

Come join the fun this Saturday September 10th from 11am to 4pm. There will be many jobs:

• Cleaning the deck and lawn
• Putting away the benches, tables and umbrellas
• Making the changing rooms, er, livable
• And much more….

Your help will be much appreciated.

And someone might even bring coffee and donuts! Or beer and chips for after. (Or so I’m told.)

The theme will be, well I’m not sure it’s a theme really:  Bring a starter dish whose name starts with the first initial of your first name, and a main dish whose name starts with the first initial of your last name.  Is that clear?

Ok, here’s an example, take our fearless leader Brad Rippetoe.  I hear he’s bringing a starter of Biltong and for a main course the Hungarian delicacy of Rooster Testicle Stew.  Get it? B and R?

Don’t know Brad? Here’s a recent picture:

So bring your dish Saturday around 5 and join the fun.  We’ll be up on the hill by the shed as usual.  All are welcome.

By the way, I hear Joe Berkowitz is bringing Jellied Moose Nose and some Balut. Be there.

Here are the hours for this final week:

Monday 8/29 – Thursday 9/1: 3pm to 8pm

Friday 9/2: 3pm to 9pm

Saturday 9/3 and Sunday 9/4: 10am to 9pm

Monday 9/5: 10am to 8pm

(By decision of the board, the traditional doggy swim in the final hour of Labor Day has been cancelled.  The pool will be open for general swim instead).

But there’s still a lot of debris to be cleaned up, furniture to be put back, and water to be checked (gotta maintain the new-found pristineness), so the pool will open at 3pm today, Sunday August 28th.

So for any inconvenience.

Since tomorrow, barring any announcements to the contrary, is the first public school day of the year, we will close at 8pm.

What makes the pool so cloudy and green?

There are lots of factors that contribute to the problem, and how much they come in to play varies from summer to summer.  These include:

• Early algae growth, which can be because of a slow filtering system.  One of our filters is in need of some repair work, making it run very slowly.*
• One particular type of algae is extremely tiny, so tiny that our vacuum cleaning can’t filter it out effectively.
• Heavy bather load, which is always an issue because of the popularity of Glenwood.
• Sun screen lotions, make-up and body fluids of bathers.  Hot showers are required by the health department prior to entering the pool, however this is very difficult if not impossible to enforce.
• Warm water due to weather conditions (although this has improved in recent days).
• High calcium hardness related to having to use more calcium-based chlorine chemicals to maintain the pool over the past month of very warm water (over 85 degrees).
• Debris that falls into the pool, especially leaves and grass.  This is mostly from bathers not using foot showers prior to entering the pool and the large amount of trees and grass surrounding Glenwood.

At the end of last week the problem was exacerbated by a failed motor on one of our filter pumps, forcing us to close the pool for about 36 hours.  We were able to remove the motor and get it to a repair shop in Frederick that got it up and running the next day.  While we were able to re-open the pool safely, it sure set us back a few steps in correcting the water cloudiness.

Is it clean and safe to swim in?

Yes.  The cloudiness is mostly calcium precipitate and a little bit of algae (most of which settles on the bottom and sides of the pool. The pH and chlorine levels are correct and the water is safe for swimming.  However, if it becomes so cloudy that the main drain is not visible to the lifeguards, the diving well will be closed until the water clears.

What is being done to fix the problem?

Glenwood’s managers are working with pool experts to address this on a daily basis.  We have been using a number of special treatments to break the precipitate up and clear the water, which is done at night so as not to affect swimmers in any way. Other activities, most of which have to be done early in the day before there are swimmers in the pool, include:

• Scrubbing the bottom and sides of the pool on a daily basis.
• Intensive vacuuming.  This week we are bringing in a special type of vacuum device that is made to filter out the smallest of particles.  We are optimistic that this will help clear out much of the algae.
• Scrubbing calcium scale off of pool tiles at the water surface

* When the pool closes for the season we will be having all of our filters taken apart for special cleaning, not just the one that is running slowly.  We have asked several pool and filter experts and have been advised strongly that this is not an activity we should attempt during the season.  This is a job for experts, not something that our staff can do, and it takes up to a week to refurbish our (5) filters.

We will also be “re-white coating” the pool before the 2012 season.  This is standard maintenance (although very expensive $20,000-$30,000) that has to be performed at least every 8-10 years or so on outdoor pools like ours.  This will, among other things, smooth the underwater surface making it more difficult for algae and chemical precipitates to settle on the bottom and sides of the pool.

Sincerely,

Brian Slattery,
Board President

Thanks to boy genius pool wonder (and board president) Brian Slattery for his heroic work in getting it back into service.

The motor on one of the pool pumps died yesterday, so we’ve had to close the pool.

It is in the process of being repaired, but we do not yet have a clear idea of when it will be done.  We’ve been told it could take half an hour, or it could take all day.

Please bear with us while we struggle to get the pool open again.

The pool grounds and the baby pool will be open during the day.

Yes, this is a repeat of the most successful FNC theme this year.  Man that was good, so let’s do it again!

Marinate anything, in anything (as long as there’s not too much sweat in it), and bring it to the hill by the shed.  I’m sure a few diehards will be there.

And even though he will  not be there in person, Deputy Joe-Dawg Berkowitz says:

• Drink lots of fluids
• Wear light clothing
• Take lots of dips in the pool to cool off

See you there after 5:30!  I know Brad will be there.  Don’t know Brad?  Here’s a recent picture:

If you still want to swim, albeit without the kids, you can still get tickets at the Lifeguard office today.