Oct. 7, 2004
By Lisa M. Larranaga
Staff Writer

For decades the St. Ambrose swimming pool has been open for students, faculty and alumni to take advantage of – but few people know about it – or visit it.

“On a good day I’ll get four people in a three hour period,” senior SAU lifeguard Hannah Bousselot said.

Bousselot has been life guarding for seven years, and along with the other seven SAU guards, she’s certified and trained for first aid.

With Campus Recreation using the pool for aquatic classes, more students are being introduced to its benefits -- although most people that attend the classes are faculty and staff.

“The SAU pool is different then the other pools I’ve worked at,” Bousselot said. “There are not a lot of people it’s mostly faculty and staff swim.”

Secluded adjacent to Ambrose Hall, the pool sits in a building that also houses the maintenance and physical plant offices. There is no sign to identify it, but it does have a small set of stairs and the hours of operation posted on the entrance.

Most students who do know of the pools location complain about the odd hours and lack of guards during open swim. Junior Sarah Foley found time in her schedule to swim once a week her freshmen year but, she hasn’t been there since.

“I’m too busy now and the hours don’t work with my schedule,” said Foley. “If they had open swim on the weekends I would go.”

Pool supervisor Tony Huntley said the main reason the hours seem odd is because it’s a work study job. He has to work around student schedules, which doesn’t give him a lot of peak hour times to work with.

“I understand that people get upset about that,” said Huntley. “It’s a tough situation. It’s hard to get lifeguards there at the times people think the pool should be open.”

Huntley also said he doesn’t keep the pool open later then 6 p.m. for the guards safety. Because of the pools secluded location, they don’t feel safe working past dusk. For safety issues, Huntley also schedules two guards to work a shift.

“That’s one of the problems,” said Huntley, “It’s a work study job, so of course the life guards are going to have things come up some time and not be able to work. But, they don’t like working alone. So, if one person calls in, there ends up being no one to work the shift.”

Huntley has tried to think of other ways to handle the pool schedule, but has mixed emotions. Because of liability reasons, they’re unable to allow people to swim at their own risk.

“Some people think it would be best if we opened it from 2-7 everyday,” Huntley said. “I’m not sure about that yet. I really have to think about what’s best for everyone.”

Despite the pools old age, Huntley said the City of Davenport checks it every semester and told him it has the best water in the Quad Cities. The maintenance staff checks the water, filters and pumps on a daily basis to make sure the water’s clean and the filtering system is working correctly.

Huntley understands the recreational benefits of swimming and wants the students to enjoy the advantage of having a pool on campus.

“If you have a group of people and know a day or two that you’ll religiously swim, but the hours you need aren’t on our schedule, stop by and we can try and work something out,” Huntley said.

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