A smashed jar of salsa prompted the closure of a popular public pool in Needham this week, as crews drained, cleaned, and refilled the pool to ensure no glass shards would harm swimmers.
Town authorities announced Sunday night that the Rosemary Lap Pool would be closed for several days during a withering July heat because of the mishap, which cost between $15,000 to $20,000 to remedy, according to Amy Haelsen, a spokesperson for the town.
“It was an unfortunate accident,” said Haelsen.
In a Facebook post, the town’s parks and recreation department said a glass bottle shattered next to the pool and that shards ended up in the water. It caused the pool’s shuttering during a week where the National Weather Advisory issued a heat advisory for most of southern New England as temperatures stubbornly hung in the 80s and 90s. The family pool at the site remained open, and the lap pool was re-opened Thursday afternoon.
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To guarantee everyone’s safety, the lap pool was drained, power-washed and vacuumed, re-filled with water, re-treated with chemicals to meet state standards, and re-tested for bacteria.
Haelsen said those steps were necessary to make sure the shards were no longer in the pool. The glass posed potential hazards, she said. Someone could have stepped on the glass, or been cut while they were swimming laps, or children could have ingested it while they were splashing around.
Glass is forbidden for just this reason at Rosemary Pools, with town officials calling the incident “avoidable and unfortunate.”
“We understand that this closure may be frustrating for many, as it is for us,” said Stacey Mulroy, the director of Needham Park and Recreation in a Facebook post earlier in the week.
Danny McDonald can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @Danny__McDonald.