NSC teams pool resources to help Cats and Cougars
By Jeff Bonato jbonato@stmendianetwork.com September 29, 2011 7:32PM
The Vernon Hills High School swimming pool will close on Saturday. | Michael Schmidt~Sun-Times Media
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Highlights of what Prentiss Lea, School District 128 superintendent, said on a school Web site about the swimming-pool situation at Vernon Hills and Libertyville high schools:
Cost to make repairs is abotu $125,000.
Lea, along with a representative from the district’s engineering firm and a pool engineer, met with officials from the Illinois Department of Public Health in Springfield regarding repairs that would be needed to bring the pools into compliance with the federal Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act.
Lea took blame for the district not addressing the problem before, citing a breakdown in communication between various departments.
Lea said IDPH officials told him that the school district will get no extension. Plans to make pools compliant are processed in the order in which they are received, so each time a plan is submitted, it goes to the bottom of the stack. Submission review time could take up to four weeks.
After IDPH approval, the pools will be closed up to another three months.
High-school swimmers will be bused to and from practice sites.
Updated: November 11, 2011 5:42PM
If you’re a swimmer at Libertyville or Vernon Hills right now, you can be excused for having that sinking feeling.
The only good news is that other schools in the North Suburban Conference are coming to the rescue, to literally keep the Wildcat and Cougar programs afloat for now and for the foreseeable future.
At issue is the state-mandated closing of swimming pools across the state on Saturday morning — a decision which has reeled in both high schools in District 128.
Back in 2008, the state government passed a law requiring all public pools in the state to fix a drain problem that could potentially cause someone — especially a small child — to drown.
Apparently, it’s possible for a swimmer to get stuck against a drain underwater, get held there by the suction and drown — although it apparently has never happened in Illinois.
Nevertheless, the state now requires pools to have a different type of drain system installed, and determined that any pool that hasn’t complied, will be shut down on Oct. 1, 2011 — Saturday.
Saturday is now at hand, and because of an unfortunate set of circumstances, School District 128 hasn’t yet been able to comply with the state mandate.
Hence, the Libertyville and Vernon Hills girls swim programs are scrambling to become road teams, students at the schools who signed up for swimming for gym class will now be doing another activity, the CATS youth swim club, which has hundreds of youngsters, has to find a new home, and Special Olympics swimmers are now without a pool, etc.
In other words ... not good.
The bit of good news is this, courtesy of Brian McDonald, athletic director at Vernon Hills.
“The North Suburban Conference has been terrific in helping us with pool time, and with switching our home meets to their places,” he said. “The entire NSC (schools with pools) — Stevenson, Warren, Lake Forest, Mundelein, Zion-Benton — have all been just terrific in helping us.”
That’s also true for the girls swim team at Libertyville.
Morgan Dickson is one of the top Wildcat swimmers — a state qualifier a year ago — and her mom, Sue Dickson, is one of the many “Team Mom” types who’ve been stressing over the oncoming disaster.
Sue said that current plans call for Libertyville’s varsity to practice at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesdays/Thursdays at Mundelein, and to practice all weekdays after school at Stevenson.
She said that the Patriots will be adjusting the lanes of their pool so they and Libertyville can practice at the same time.
As for the 50 girls on Libertyville’s JV team ... stay tuned.
Ditto for the CATS youth program and the STARS Special Olympics program, and learn-to-swim programs, etc.
As for Libertyville’s varsity, the team was to swim at Palatine on Friday. But because of the circumstances, the Pirates agreed to come to Libertyville for the meet.
As a result, Libertyville’s swim team will have its “Senior Night” celebration on Friday.
Over at Vernon Hills, McDonald said the Cougar swimmers have already come up with an idea to make their new homes for practice feel a little bit more like home.
They’re going to fill a canteen with water from the Vernon Hills pool, and pour a bit of it into each pool they practice and swim at this season ... a gesture to bring a little bit of home with them wherever they go.
As for getting the pool fixed, McDonald said, “From the District 128 perspective, we’re prepared to fix it. We want to comply and we want our pools to be as safe they can possibly be.”
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