BY DAVID ECK
Enquirer Contributor
MONTGOMERY -- About two dozen parents who attended a city council meeting Wednesday came away happy after council amended a recent rule that prohibited diaper-aged children in the city's adult pool.
Children who aren't toilet trained can now use the pool if they wear both diapers and swim pants. A policy approved earlier this spring prohibited such children from the pool, relegating them to a smaller kiddie pool.
Parents complained that the policy made it difficult to take both older and younger children to the pool, and that it encouraged noncompliance.
"I think it's great that government listened to its constituents," said Beth Kasson, a mother of three who fought to have the rule changed. "I feel that we still have one of the safest pools in the city." City officials had originally cited health concerns in creating the policy.
"Parents cannot prove their children are (trained) any easier than pool management can prove they are not," said Mrs. Kasson. "This policy has backfired."
City officials agreed that the new rule was easy to break.
"I would like to see some kind of compromise," said Vice Mayor Gail Winiarz. "It's a community pool and it's important that the families are able to enjoy it."
Barb Kiley told council that she would make other summertime arrangements for her children's water fun if the original rule stayed.
"If the diaper rule is not changed, I'm going to get a refund," said the mother of two. "I just plain don't like the baby pool. The baby pool is not big enough to accommodate all the diaper-aged children." Montgomery's rules mirror those of one of the area's largest pools: The Beach Waterpark.
Margaret Drexel, spokeswoman at the Mason waterpark, said its policy requires untrained children to wear swim pants in all pools.
"We do not permit children with loose or disposable diapers," she said. "We encourage them to wear plastic swim pants for the safety and convenience of all our guests."
