it's raining men, hallelujah

OK, maybe the title should say "it's raining workmen on the pool project", but having watched the Tony Awards last night, I was still in a musical vein when I chose this title. The good news is that FINALLY our community pool project has once again started up with the removal of additional trees.

Now, don't get me started on "how come they didn't do this before when they had the equipment here" because frankly I don't think anybody has a good answer. Residents were told we'd have a new pool by October of 2010. Now we're closer to October of 2011, but hope springs eternal. Nobody was here when the original developers built the community pool over organic fill material, and if you've read my blog before, you'll find pictures of the original excavation. When they did that, you'd think the excavation contractor might have noted the dimensions on the new pool plan - a pool that would be a bit longer, but more shallow (same amount of water, better for lap swimming). So, they apparently only dug where the old pool had been.

And they dug halfway to China because they kept coming up with more debris. I've heard various numbers bandied about, but suffice to say that when they reached ten feet down, they had to go at least another five. About a month ago, after another interminable wait while bureaucrats pushed paper, they started to place "footers" (for lack of a better word) at the end of the pool where a sun shade (this required a separate permit, as none had been there from earlier pool in 1988 construction era) was going to be erected. It would require sufficient anchoring to withstand high winds under the Miami-Dade hurricane standard passed statewide in 1995. When they went for that dig, they found stuff "missed" before.

Now, I'm not saying there have been screw-ups, but to a casual observer and resident having to keep paying more and more to restore our pool, somebody should step forward and admit mistakes have been made. Instead, I fear we'll simply be asked to go visit the ATM of our choice. At least, this pool crew was patriotic - note the red, white, and blue t-shirts. I'm sure they all thought me weird, snapping pictures of them at work, but after NOTHING happening, it was time to share the good news with friends and neighbors.