News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Plaza Pool lifeguard Gillian Nye visits with customers swimming at the pool on Tuesday. The pool opened earlier this month after being forced to close since March. It is operating on a reduced schedule and staff for the time being.

ALPENA — After being forced to close to help slow the spread of COVID-19, the Plaza Pool in Alpena has reopened.

Currently, the public pool is running on a reduced schedule, with no night sessions, and minimal staff. Director Krista Morrow said she hopes the pool can assume all of its regular activity soon, but, right now, she is busy retraining staff and adjusting to operating during a pandemic.

Morrow said the pool closed in March, when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered Michiganders to stay home unless absolutely necessary to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, and reopened on Sept. 8.

Hours are limited to the day for the time being because of a staff shortage. She said she decided to cut night classes and events because those have the fewest participants.

“The night crowd is so small that it just isn’t cost-effective.” she said.

Currently, the pool can have only 50 people in it at one time, she said, and the pool, shower areas, and other sections of the facility are cleaned thoroughly to make the pool as safe as possible.

“I have had to retrain all of the lifeguards, because we have been closed almost six months, and it takes a lot of training to get everyone back in the groove again,” she said. “We had to train them on all of the new guidelines and cleaning procedures, so there was and is a lot of work to do.”

While the pool was closed, Morrow said, Alpena County maintenance employees and herself drained the pool and did a lot of maintenance to it. She said the down time also allowed her to catch up on a lot of paperwork and data collection that had piled up.

The county owns the pool and contracts with the firm Synchronizations Management to oversee operations. Morrow works for Synchronizations.

Like most places, the pool will require people to adhere to health standards and recommendations made by state and local health officials. She said everyone must wear a mask to enter the facility, but are not required to wear one in the pool. Masks go back on as soon as a swimmer exits the water.

“We are giving people Ziploc baggies to keep their masks in so they don’t get wet, and that has worked great,” Morrow said. “We spend half of the day cleaning to keep everyone safe.”

Morrow said the months-long closure will have a negative impact on finances. The pool, for example, will extend memberships by six months, which means a long period before they will have to renew, which equates to a significant amount of lost revenue.

“By the time we will be able to renew memberships, we will have gone almost a year without money,” Morrow said. “It is killing us. The public needs to know that that is catastrophic.”

Morrow said about 200 people purchase season passes for the pool. Some may not renew, she said.

“Some of those members were ones who used the pool at night, and I understand their frustrations,” she said. “But, given the fact there are small numbers at night and only four lifeguards, it is tough, and we don’t have the money to hire anybody right now.”