Dear City Council, I am on the board of the HOA in my small (20 unit) condo association in Menlo Park. According to the San Mateo County rules, condo pools, no matter how small the HOA, are considered public. While we all know that public pools could be difficult to monitor for social distancing, etc., we and many other friends who live in small condo associations, have barely have two people in the pool at one time. In my particular condo, hardly anyone uses the pool to begin with and we are all very responsible re masks, etc. The rules now say that there has to be constant monitoring and the water checked every four hours, among other rules. This is an impossible burden and not necessary in small associations…any one paid (and we can’t afford that anyway) to be on hand would probably fall asleep from boredom, and when the HOA has a professional pool cleaner which comes 3 times a week, water testing is not necessary (the CDC says COVID is not transmitted through water). Would it be possible for small associations, say, under 30 condos be able to have exceptions if we would agree to one family group in the pool at one time, and people social distancing while sitting around the pool? In my association, we would do that in any case, without rules. I know that rules are made for our safety, but it’s important to not punish people who live with pools which are behind locked doors and only open to residents. Thank you, Sincerely, Joan E. Wilson Received on Tue May 26 2020 - 19:33:33 PDT
