April 10, 2008
NACo Wants Pioche Pool Diving Board Removed

Photo by Trisha Thompson Pioche Pool diving board.

By Dave Maxwell, Staff Writer

Citing insurance risks the Nevada Association of Counties (NACo), who provides insurance for the Pioche swimming pool is insisting the pool’s diving board be removed before the pool opens this season. County Manager John Lovelady said that NACo had sent a third letter of notification to the County saying the board does not meet the standards based on two years of inspections by Ralph Johnson, a contract inspector for the Nevada Insurance Pool. Zelch representing the Pioche Town Board was holding off removing the board as long as they could, hoping it could be part of the new park restoration for Pioche.

Zelch said there is nothing wrong with the board, “They just don’t allow diving boards in swimming pools anymore. They say there is too much risk of injury.” He said he felt NACo was manipulating the Town, saying, “If we don’t remove the board, we can’t get insurance and if we can’t get insurance we can’t open…It isn’t just ours though, it’s all across the state.” This will mean the Caliente City pool would not be able to have a diving board as well.

During the meeting Pioche resident and long-time Pool Manager Debi Gill told Commissioners that statistics show most diving board accidents happen in private, not public pools, and it is safer to dive into a pool from the diving board than jumping off the side. She said that injuries that happen while going off the board are very rare. Statistics from the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission lump all diving injuries together to include scuba diving, competitive diving, shallow water diving, diving board, and diving off the side. “When we are looking at diving board injuries, we’re looking at a really false set of statistics…75 percent of diving spinal cord injuries occurred at oceans, lakes, and rivers, not swimming pools,…with most of those being attributed to alcohol use.” she said. Of injuries that did occur in swimming pools, 95 percent of them occurred in the shallow end, she pointed out.

She also said that since 1981 when the current Pioche pool was built, there has not been one single case of spinal injury involving the diving board, or any other injury of consequence.

Mrs. Gill said the pool is in compliance with current laws for public pools. Nevada Administrative Codes relate to boards that are one-meter or more and the board at the Pioche pool is only 21-inches high. One meter is 39.37 inches. She stated the Pioche pool is not in violation of any current rules and regulations and routinely passes the health inspection by the State Health Inspector from Ely. “Playground equipment has more injuries than a diving board in a swimming pool,” she said.

Commission Chairperson Ronda Hornbeck directed County Manager John Lovelady to contact NACo and get a letter in writing from the pool insurance carrier, “Because we need to know if we left the board there, what would the consequence be, what would our liability be?”

Commissioner Paul Mathews suggested the District Attorney be asked to look into the question of Mrs. Gill believing the pool to be in compliance with State regulations while the Pool Pack Insurance inspector says they are not.