They were told by “the government” to install it or they’d have to shut the pool down. She didn’t specify who in government.
It was expensive. She would not give me a number but finally conceded it was five figures.
In the months since its installation, it has been used exactly zero times.
Wow. It's like a hydraulically-operated microcosm of government in general.
21 comments:
"Wow. It's like a hydraulically-operated microcosm of government in general."
You mean as in useless, expensive, valueless to the vast majority of the people who are required to pay for it, overpowered, underutilized and mandatory?
nah. I think you're just grasping at metaphors again.
Can anyone recommend a good dry cleaner?
A wookie suit gets pretty stanky after three years constant use.
Somebody posted about this the other day . . . apparently EVERY pool open to the public has to install these hydraulic lifts. It's a matter of federal regulation, and after the ruling was first handed down, there was an appeal for "clarification." The clarification came down: "Yup, you've gotta get 'em installed. And you'd better get cracking, because there's less time left till the deadline now and we hear they ain't cheap."
Supposedly people in the industry have been dreading this deadline and calling it "Poolmageddon."
I have no idea whether any of that is truth; I just note that none of it sounds implausible, and that's a problem.
What a waste... they could have used that money to buy another armored tactical vehicle for the Mayberry PD...
Dann in Ohio
Hydraulic operated or ratchet-operated?
Governments see something relatively inoffensive like the Americans with Disabilities Act, and think that if people don't mind mandated handicapped ramps, therefore much more expensive and useless mandates are also appropriate.
So like Tam says, a microcosm.
But how are the neighborhood quadriplegics going to practice their breast stroke if this isn't installed?
The chances of my wife, who has MS, into that contraption is 0% and falling.
The young lady I give swimming lessons to has SD. She's a 24 year old engineer and I think she bright enough to know that her electric chair and pool water don't mix. She can get herself behind the wheel of her van, into her chair, into work and into the pool without any help.
If .gov want to outfit pool in .gov facilities with lifts, more power to them if that's what the want.
Forcing everyone else is just stupid.
Gerry
More on the story:
http://www.saysuncle.com/2012/05/28/government-at-work-6/#comments
If you're in business (shamelessly seeking profits) you must be forced to pay for all human want and/or suffering. I'm pretty sure that's in the communist manifesto. -- Lyle
I wonder if you could soup the mechanism up, generate some gnarly angular acceleration, and make a new red-neck "Hey! Watch This!" moment. Just hang a caution sign on the fence, to warn anyone actually wanting to use a handicable pool lift.
Is it REALLY a good idea to make it easier for people who probably have trouble swimming to get into a pool?
I may be missing something, but I have to ask why digital TV was mandated by the government and subsidized by the vouchers provided for digital set-top boxes, yet something like this wasn't. That is, other than the need to ensure that the proles get their daily dose of "programming", lest they start to have ungood thoughts.
Would that not be the "downlifters"? ;)
Like nearly everything else put forth by the so-called intellectuals, this mandate lets them feel morally superior to the proles. It provides the opportunity for the differently abled to enjoy a pool just as much as those tight-fisted Republicans on vacation.
It matters not whether one of their feelings (thought seldom is involved) is affordable, feasible, will cause worse problems (unanticipated consequences), or work at all. Only whether it allows them to feel good about themselves.
I have heard they run $20-30K. I am guessing about $5K worth of hardware, and chalk the rest up to red tape and lawyers. Anything related to swimming pools is a lawsuit magnet, apparently, so the price of pool gear is inflated to pay off the plaintiffs everyone knows will be around next week.
Wow, I just realized: my labor and delivery unit has waterbirthing tubs, but we don't have lifts to get handicapped people in and out of them. I am thinking this is like the Lawsuit Event Horizon: a handicapped woman having a baby in water.
Alath
Carmel IN
Say goodbye to pools at most of your budget and mid-priced hotel chains. Hey...they could just turn them in to Koi ponds! Maybe I'll start a company offering that service...
@ docjim505,
"Is it REALLY a good idea to make it easier for people who probably have trouble swimming to get into a pool?"
Point 1) There are many people that have trouble climbing in and out of the pool, that can swim just fine.
Point 2) There are activities in a pool, such as water walking, that are beneficial for many. Simply floating can relieve stresses on back muscles and vertebrae and discs of the spine. Again, for some an assist into and out of the pool makes the comfort or exercise something reasonably available.
Point 3) For others, the argument follows somewhat the argument for abolishing speed limits in favor of "thinning the gene pool", letting those fundamentally incapable of existing in open society without immense and intrusive "protection", to remove themselves from the community in a timely fashion. Note that this sucks for bystanders, at least at the epochal incidents. The complementary argument for instituting such an approach is that for the vast majority, "if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen," is sufficient. YMMV.
Brad K:
Point 0) When the fuck did it become your job to dictate how I manage my own property?
@ dave,
??
This isn't about starting to dictate how to manage your property. You already have requirements about either life guards or signs being posted, a child-proof gate and fence with smaller openings than 4 inches.
You already have regulations about who you can, and have to, serve in your hotel or other public venue.
You already, in many states, have regs about where you can and cannot allow smoking.
I am not defending the laws and regulations, nor dictating to you whether you should obey the law or do things that might serve your customers. I do suggest there are a couple of reasons to consider a pool lift a reasonable courtesy (along with a morbid and snide aside).
Enjoy the day!
Here's a novel frelling idea; How about 'allowing' friends and family (or...Oh I don't know, maybe some of them there mandated lifeguards) to help pool and de-pool the teeming masses of "handi-capable" folk who've managed to dodge preemptive dismemberment in their momma's wombs? You know, the ones who utilize all those special parking spaces that you need a special government sticker -on a government approved vehicle- to use. I mean I never see one of them empty, and by golly, I never see unhandicapped folk with the special sticker on their car using them.
So now that .gov has blown through their stuffy olden times design margin, our grandchildren's futures, and even a goodly portion of China's we-own-your-a$$ fiat stash that we paid them for rope, they still want to work tirelessly on our behalf to bankrupt and destroy what remains of we the people's design margins?
Welcome to your equitably distributed progressive new world. Save me some space next to the sustainable algae-sourced catalytically-controlled ethanol campfire. I'll bring the weekly allotment of Soylent Green, two pickled turnips, and 16oz clay mugs too; for Soma and black market cola. Hmmmmm, handcart or Llama?
Anyway, it used to be that I just distrusted "the government" a bit, but nowadays, my opinion of the collective them shines somewhat less brightly than the nether end of the black hole I want to launch the whole lot into so that they can experience the sensation of being pulled apart at the seams for theoretical ever.
I f'n hatses them.
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