Executive Summary
Why the Controller’s Office Conducted the Review
During fiscal year 2022, the Department of Parks and Recreation (the “Department”) initiated it’s “Rec for All” Plan that aimed to make its pool centers more welcoming places for individuals with disabilities and neurodiverse conditions. The installation of swimming pool chair lifts was an early part of the initiative. In 2023, the Department, with the support of the Philadelphia Department of Health, received a $35,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Bureau of Health Promotion and Risk Reduction to help fund additional chair lifts for the city’s public pools. As a result, chair lifts have now been installed at twelve of the city’s pools with the hope of adding thirteen more in the future. The purpose of our review was to determine whether the new chair lifts were functioning as planned, and the city’s pools and spray grounds provided the welcoming and well-maintained play settings city residents expect.
What the Controller’s Office Found
Our 2024 review of the twelve new chair lifts, as well as the pool and spray grounds at those sites, identified the following conditions:
- Chair lifts were not operable in six of the twelve sites that offered them. Four of the six lifts had mechanical problems at the time of our visit and two could not be tested since the batteries necessary to operate the lifts were missing from the pool areas.
- All of the lifeguards at the twelve locations acknowledged that they were minimally trained to use the chair lifts, and rarely, if ever, were asked to operate them.
- The grounds at four of the twelve locations were not adequately maintained and presented some serious safety concerns. Investigators found instances of cracking concrete around pool areas, chipping paint in a spray ground area, a broken fence surrounding a pool’s perimeter, and low-hanging wires behind a building.
- Lifesaving equipment was improperly stored at one location, which compromises the ability of lifeguards or pool staff to quickly locate the equipment in the event of an emergency.
What the Controller’s Office Recommends
With more than half of the city’s pool chair lifts requiring some level of maintenance, and pool grounds at some of these sites showing signs of structural decline, we recommend that the Department calculate the potential costs for the necessary repairs and then prioritize the repairs based on the severity of the conditions. Department management should also ensure that the conditions cited above are corrected as quickly as possible. Specific recommendations can be found at the conclusion of this report.
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