I swim, therefore I am

Is that policy because of swimmer safety or heating costs?

Wow--that makes me thankful for my nw florida pool's policy (no LCM when the low is under 45, and closed altogether when it's under 35, although they're not always consistent with this). Is your pool heated, and does it have covers?

My observation would be that in this case, the policy reflects staff cost management as the primary administrative agenda folded in an official health and safety policy. Generally the Fort Myers City and Lee County area have low demand for lap swimming, and general public pool access during the late Fall, Winter, and early Spring. The high demand comes only during the warm and hot months for kiddie pool, water slide, and summer camp programs.


The exception is FCGU Aquatic Center which operates under some kind of collaboration under FCGU and Lee County Recreation. The college swim program pretty much opens the door to concurrent public lap swimming. The head coach, Neil Studd is very supportive of fitness lap swimming and eventually hopes establish a masters swimming program under the domain of FCGU.

Originally Posted by swimsuit addict

Wow--that makes me thankful for my nw florida pool's policy (no LCM when the low is under 45, and closed altogether when it's under 35, although they're not always consistent with this). Is your pool heated, and does it have covers?

Yes, I noticed from your workout today the favorable circumstances for public access to swim in your pool - that's great. The Fort Myers City pools tend to be overheated except the main aquatic center, as a large USA Club is based there. I have yet to see pool covers. FCGU puts on the pool covers every night throughout the cooler months.

When I first arrived SWF in June 2011, later than fall I was very surprised at the local winter pool closing policy, as compared to my experiences swimming college and masters in the San Francisco Bay Area. So that little community pool five minutes walk from my house has become an important part of my swimming.

When my pool first opened here in 2006, every local I talked to thought it was absolutely nuts to swim outdoors in the winter, even though there are days here that are in the 70s, and the pool is generally kept at a toasty 82. Most of the people I saw at the pool in those first few years seemed to have grown up in California, or lived there at some point. What has changed things somewhat is the kids team, which has really thrived since the pool was built. Since it has grown so in popularity, the notion of swimming as a year round activity is beginning to take hold.

(and as far as heating costs--as I understand it, my pool relies on geothermal sources to heat the pool water up to 68 or so, the only has to use conventional heating system to raise the temp the rest of the way. It's cooled geothermally in the summer as well. And the pool is covered at night during the winter.)

That is ridiculous. Our community generally is prohibited from using the University pools - and they too are closed during semester breaks. The city of Tallahassee (which has been voted #1 in the country a few times) runs the other pools - rule of thumb - if it is below 30, they don't open until the temp is at LEAST 30, or at 11:00, whichever comes sooner. This is for the lifeguards, so they don't have to sit out in cold weather. Also, there is a pool with a bubble over it, so even if the temp is cold, you can still swim at the other pool - because the air temp in the bubble is a nice 75-80. Pool temp is too.

Originally Posted by Celestial

That is ridiculous. Our community generally is prohibited from using the University pools - and they too are closed during semester breaks. The city of Tallahassee (which has been voted #1 in the country a few times) runs the other pools - rule of thumb - if it is below 30, they don't open until the temp is at LEAST 30, or at 11:00, whichever comes sooner. This is for the lifeguards, so they don't have to sit out in cold weather. Also, there is a pool with a bubble over it, so even if the temp is cold, you can still swim at the other pool - because the air temp in the bubble is a nice 75-80. Pool temp is too.

The city of Tallahassee cold weather policy as described is certainly more reasonable. No doubt, Fort Myers Recreation appears to operate in a more provincial and narrow mindset. Without the FGCU Aquatic Center, and the more progressive administration of the FGCU Recreation Management staff, I would be forced to travel 50 minutes down to Norris YMCA in Naples for LCM, and have to put up with those restrictive local pool policies.

Regarding University pool access, in most places I have lived, for a higher fee, qualifying residents that live within a certain specified area could obtain facilities membership. This was the case at Princeton, Cal Berkely, Univ of San Francisco, Stanford, and Rutgers. At FGCU, there are no Men's Swim Team, or college water polo programs, only Womens Swimming, which allows for significant available lap swim pool time.

FGCU does all things possible to bring in pool revenue including renting the pools out to visiting out of state HS and College teams during holiday breaks. This year's holiday break is different. The initial posted holiday pool schedule indicated about three weeks was closed to members like myself, then out of the blue, a revised schedule came out with various hours of SCY and LMC available each day in between or concurrent with the sessions when the pool was being rented to the visiting teams. Needless to say, I and my other fellow FGCU hardcore lap swimmers were thrilled.

Well, yes, for a higher fee, we could swim at Leach, for a smaller fee, at Morcom. The prohibition mostly is in the form of proximity to where you live, and parking facilities. That, and the fact that the more competitive adult swimmers, other than FSU swimmers, swim at the city pools - making it nice to have someone to wor out with. FSU rents their Pools out to, for high school practices & meets, and even once, during the winter for ATAC's winter invitational. FSU is odd about Leach, though, they make/made a big deal about it being primarily for the students, and the staff is extremely unfriendly towards non-students. Morcom is an awesome, state of the art Myrtha pool, it's just in a very inaccessible area- FSU ran out of land, I guess. It's just not worth it for most to go out there when we have these great pools so much closer to work and home.

FGCU doesn't have a men's team any more? Figures. Geez.

Originally Posted by Celestial

FGCU doesn't have a men's team any more? Figures. Geez.

I was told the men's team became a Title 9 liability.