This summer, I took my daughter Athena to the Sedona Community Pool for swim lessons. She had no problems getting into the water and once
she discovered splashing, she enjoyed every minute.

Submerging her for the first time was remarkably unpleasant for us both: She didn’t know what was happening, and I disliked looking into
the eyes of a child who trusts me completely to dunk her underwater without being able to explain that the process was temporary and that
she’d come out fine on the other side. Athena is resilient and after the third or fourth time going under water, and as long as she could
hold a plastic frog or octopus, nothing bothered her anymore. All in all, we enjoyed our summer swim lessons.
It is unfortunate that the city of Sedona has opted to reduce hours and close the pool sooner than expected this summer.
According to city staff, who queried 56 other community-owned pools around Arizona when determining if, when and how  to end the summer

pool hours, no other public pool in the state opens as early as March and closes as late as November, like Sedona does.
It was several months after the Sedona pool was opened that we published a press release from the Town of Camp Verde that it was opening its
Heritage Pool for the summer.

The city could raise lifeguard pay to entice more qualified lifeguards to apply or offer benefits, but most lifeguards at community and
municipal pools are teens and young adults in their 20s who work at the pool as a summer job, not necessarily full-fledged adults with rents to
pay and families to feed. Thus the Sedona pool’s wages for lifeguards is not meant to compete with the wages offered by
restaurants or hotels or retail stores in Sedona, but on par with other pools in the state. That being said, the strong national and state
economy means many private businesses can offer more positions and pay more to serve residents and more tourists coming through Sedona.
When a teen is looking for a summer job, working one of these jobs may be more appealing than working at a public pool if they’re trying to earn
more money over the summer before heading back to school. Also, hiring lifeguards is not as easy as hiring retail staff as private businesses do.

Lifeguards need certification and extensive training considering their skill set must include being able to
save a life, not merely perform tasks like ringing a register, answering phones or serving food.
Athena and I were lucky that our small class had two lifeguards on duty, one teaching our
class and a second either in the pool with us or in the chair overseeing the class. While she’ll likely
not remember her first swim lesson at the Sedona Community Pool as she gets older, my wife and I
have taken her swimming other places and she’s enjoyed the water without fear. We plan to take
her back to the Sedona Community Pool in the summers to come so that she feels comfortable
swimming on her own as she gets older. The city has helped several of the classes for
older pool users move to other, private facilities in the city.

We hope that the city can learn from the early closure this year and plan to get more qualified
lifeguards next year. We also hope that potential lifeguards see the benefit in working at the
pool over the summer and giving their fellow residents a chance to safely swim knowing that
if they suffer a medical emergency or go under water, a lifeguard will be there to rescue them.

Christopher Fox Graham – Managing Editor