[StBernard] Plan floated to safeguard deserted pools

[Westley Annis]

Plan floated to safeguard deserted pools
St. Bernard warns of danger, considers increasing penalties 
Thursday, January 18, 2007
By Karen Turni Bazile

With more than 4,000 structures demolished and an untold number of homes
unoccupied, government officials in St. Bernard Parish are grappling with
another problem: what to do with poorly secured swimming pools on vacant
lots and open yards. 

In the days before Hurricane Katrina, the pools offered a welcome respite
from south Louisiana's brutal summer climate. Post-Katrina, officials worry
that they are a danger to neighborhood children and a haven for mosquitoes
and other critters that like stagnant water. 

St. Bernard's worries could soon echo in other places that sustained
catastrophic hurricane damage, such as New Orleans, as the region's slow
recovery continues to unearth new problems and concerns. 

In the coming weeks, the St. Bernard Parish Council will discuss beefing up
its laws regarding swimming pools. Already on the table is a suggestion to
require property owners to fill the abandoned pools with sand. 

"The most important ones we have to address are the ones at homes that have
been knocked down, because the pools are exposed to the streets," Council
Chairman Joey DiFatta said. 

No one can say how many pools in the parish are abandoned and poorly
secured. 

Current law allows the parish to cite property owners immediately if their
pools are not secured by a fence at least 6 feet tall. Violations of that
law can result in fines of $50 and imprisonment for up to 20 days. 

DiFatta said his goal is to stiffen the law to nudge property owners to take
care of their pools on their own. If they don't, the parish would fill pools
-- with the owners having to cover the cost, as well as pay a bigger fine,
perhaps $500. 

But some homeowners attending the council's meeting Tuesday said tougher
ordinances only work if the parish enforces them. 

"Swimming pools are a problem, but what good is another piece of paper if
you don't enforce it?" said Chalmette resident Chris Holmes, who complained
to the council of seeing unsecured homes choked with weeds, despite a parish
deadline last summer for all properties to be gutted, secured and cleaned. 

Councilman Craig Taffaro agreed. 

"I believe the enforcement -- the starting of fining people -- is an
absolute necessity," he said. "That is the message that has to be sent. You
fine the property, and you keep fining the property, and when the fines
exceed the value of the property, then it becomes the parish's property." 

. . . . . . . 

Karen Turni Bazile can be reached at kturni at timespicayune.com or (504)
826-3321.