Presidents Blog 7/13/20
Kingsgate! First of all thanks for making our neighborhood awesome. We are in interesting times and I am continually amazed that we are able to tackle major cultural changes as well as a pandemic at the same time. Neither of these things are trivial, and both will have dramatic impact on who we all are collectively. I’m looking forward to our future.
Recently we had our first “COVID-19” Health Department inspection at the pool. You’ll be happy to know that we passed with flying colors. The inspection went smoothly and without incident.
MASKS - Some of you have noticed that there are some new signs around the pool house. They read, “MASKS REQUIRED”. These signs are part of the Health Departments requirements to keep our pool open and operating during COVID-19. These signs are unironic in nature and the rule applies to everyone who would like to enter the pool house. The rule also applies when you are on the deck, but not actually swimming. This includes children. The lifeguards have been instructed to offer you a mask for a small fee or ask that you not enter the pool area without one. Our failure to abide by this Health Department rule will result in the suspension of our ability to operate. If you intend to use the pool, regardless of time, event or another factor, please come with a mask on, or be prepared to purchase one, or be asked to leave. Masks are also required to be worn correctly, which covers both your mouth and nose.
Unequivocally – Masks worn over your face and nose are required to utilize the pool facility.
PLAYGROUND - The playground is closed until King County progresses into Phase 3. There are 12 signs that say that it is closed. There are often times when there are people on the playground, and I have to ask them to leave. Anecdotally, I have not had to ask anyone who is a member of our HOA to leave the playground. Thanks for working together as a community to keep our facilities safe and keeping us in compliance with the Health Department. As members you are entitled to nicely ask someone to leave the playground. This is certainly not worth getting into an argument over, however simply saying “I’m sorry, the playground is closed. “and pointing to 1 of the 12 signs is quite easy to do. If that doesn’t work, you are welcome to report it via the website. Under normal circumstances we love it when people utilize our park as a safe place for their kids to play. We have never been overly exclusive about this and our intention is not to begin to do so. However, the results of a COVID infection traced backed to playground use at our park would likely have longer impacts on both the park and pool that we are working hard to avoid. Our simple goal is to stay squarely within the Health Department guidelines. When anyone utilizes the playground, we are out of compliance until we progress to Phase 3.
POOL SCHEDULE – During COVID-19 the board and the pool manager have been utilizing our pool login statistics to adjust our schedule to maximize our community pool usage. Our goal is to implement activities that promote maximum usage per time slot. We will be adding a couple of lap swims on weekend mornings because our “Open Swim” utilization rate is sometimes zero or 12.5% for that time period. Be on the look out for that adjustment.
WEB SITE – Chris Adams has spent a significant amount of time ensuring the website is a place for our community to access information, Pay for swim lessons, and be the focal point for our pool/park facilities. We have gotten more than 15,000 views on the website , with nearly 5000 sessions, and 1300 unique visitors. This means the website is working, and working very well. Please tell everyone you think may be missing out on information about the website. The more used it gets the better it gets.
FEEDBACK - Occasionally the board will publish information on the website and ask for feedback. Responding on the website is the best way to apply feedback on something the board may be working on. I know everyone here knows a board member or two and while we like verbal feedback – sometimes your verbal feedback gets lost simply because it comes at times when we may not be able to write it down. Please feel free to provide feedback on items you see posted by the board or other items that may concern you in general, I will do my best to make sure a member of the board responds to you. This is a great way to express your opinion and have it logged and heard.
Thanks again for making our community great!
Mike Nelson President Kingsgate 3 & 4 Homes Association