Brewster Takes The Plunge With Swimming Pool Regs

By: Bronwen Walsh

The Brewster Sea Camps pool. COURTESY PHOTO

BREWSTER – Having digested residents’ feedback from a Jan. 17 public information session, the Bay Property Planning Committee on Jan. 24 approved a set of operating rules for running what will be the Cape's first municipal swimming pool during its inaugural public summer season.Pending final approval by the select board on Feb. 13, the former Cape Cod Sea Camps pool is tentatively set to open on Monday, June 26 through, at minimum, Sunday, Aug. 20. If staffing levels permit, the season would extend through Labor Day. Hours would be 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.Residents would be able to purchase a summer membership online via the recreation department in one of five categories: individual ($100); resident plus one ($150); family ($200 for immediate household members); senior (age 70 and up, $75); and senior plus one ($125).Because half of town's total residents are age 65 and up, the Bay Property Planning Committee recommended defining "senior" as age 70 and up, consistent with the town's shellfish permitting regulations."We have 8,500 voting-age, 18-plus residents; of those, over 3,100 are 70-plus," said Town Manager Peter Lombardi. "We have another 1,110 who are age 65 to 69. So 65-plus is essentially half of the residents. It's important to be consistent."However, "senior" typically is defined as 60-plus, Sharon Tennstedt said on behalf of the council on aging. "To make it different for the pool could be of concern," she said.

Select Board Vice Chairman Ned Chatelain said he supported setting senior memberships at 70-plus this summer and adjusting the age requirement in later years."This will all be a recommendation to the select board, which votes on all fee structures," Lombardi said, adding that reserved pool hours also are an option and would generate some additional income.The committee also plans to schedule four "drop-in" swim sessions for non-season passholders at $5 per person, possibly on weekends, starting Memorial Day.In addition, a limited number of guest passes would be sold in books of five ($25 each, limit two per household) on a first-come, first-serve basis. The details of onsite sales will be announced later.First-year programming plans include open swim, morning lap swims, afternoon swimming lessons, and water aerobics. Details will be announced once a management contract is awarded."We thought it would be best…once eligibility is determined, then people could come in-person with their pool pass. We still have to talk to the vendor re: how this will work operationally," Lombardi said.The pool will be accessible to 100 residents at a time during its first season, as is the case with resident-only access to First Light Beach.Kary Fryzel, committee member at large, asked whether the town anticipated any issues with trying to keep attendance at 100."Are people going to be turned away?" Fryzel asked. "It's not going to be like the beach, where it's limited by parking. We want to let them know early."

Lombardi said a pool attendant checking passes would count to 100 and advise the gate attendant when the pool is at capacity.With lifeguards in short supply, staffing the pool will be the greatest challenge facing the town, said Lombardi. YMCA Cape Cod is interested in partnering with the town on staffing, although a formal procurement process is required to secure a vendor.Given that the state requires one lifeguard for every 25 swimmers, Brewster plans to rotate lifeguard shifts of four between 10 and 12 part-time hires, Lombardi said. Meanwhile, the town would gather data to better gauge demand."We have to determine residency eligibility for everybody who is trying to get access to the pool," Lombardi said. "What determines residency is not straightforward. The permit department is processing about 20,000-plus shellfish, recycling and beach permits a season, or 1,100 staff hours. We’re proposing to add to our existing staff. We don't have the staff to process resident eligibility in real time," and permit staff members currently are not scheduled to work on weekends.Special town meeting voters approved the $26 million Sea Camps acquisition in September 2021. Town meeting voters this past fall approved a revolving fund with $200,000 for start-up pool costs, and 50 percent of that will cover year-one operating costs, Lombardi said."We estimate $125,000 will be our operating costs for the first summer," he said. The proposed fee structure would generate about $112,000 and serve about 10 percent of town residents.The option to offer day passes or drop-in fees "present a whole bunch of operational challenges," said Recreation Director Mike Gradone. "It's harder to predict daily traffic if we do and less of a strain (on staff) if we don't. Or we could offer a drop-in day a half dozen times over the summer. That allows staff to be fully prepared." Another option is offering $5 "test swim" days prior to the pool's grand opening, on weekends starting Memorial Day.As with First Light Beach, residents also would need a vehicle permit to access the property, beach or pool, said Natural Resources Director Griffin Ryder, who anticipated a vehicular drop-off lane close to the pool and a bus drop-off running to and from the arts center.A $250,000 capital appropriation will pay for a new pool parking area, initially atop two tennis courts, until circulation patterns are better established. The pool would open with 32 parking spaces and four handicap-accessible spaces, adding overflow parking in front of the park's main house.Located on the eastern edge of the park, about half-way between Route 6A and First Light Beach, the outdoor chlorine pool measures 42 by 75 by 30 feet, rectangular with an adjacent square-shaped shallow end. It has six seven-foot-wide removable lap lanes. Heated to a balmy 84 degrees, the water ranges from three feet deep in the shallow end to nine feet in the deep end.Built in 2009, the pool house currently has two bathrooms, an office, and mechanical and equipment rooms. A 40- by 60-foot pavilion above the pool's concrete deck provides space to get out of the sun and houses the solar panels that power the office and the pool itself. There are outdoor lights on the two buildings but not on the pool, which was not used after dark.While the pool's maximum capacity is up to 271, typically it served about 150 guests daily when the camp operated it. The facility was last operational over summer 2020, when all equipment was in working order."Our goal is to start a little slower to make sure that we’re doing things correctly," Gradone said. "The pool will look very different early-on than in subsequent years."While pool hours and programming likely will be expanded, "we don't want to create an unrealistic program that no (staff) could fulfill," he said.