Saratoga Recreation Group, Inc.
Pool rules >
  1. SARATOGA Pool Rules

These rules have been established and published by your Pool Board so that everyone
may enjoy the Saratoga Pool in safety and comfort.  If you have any questions about their
intent or enforcement, please ask a member of the pool staff or the Pool Board.

      For starters, some necessary insurance talk:  the Saratoga Pool maintains a staff
whose responsibility is to ensure and enhance your safe enjoyment of our facility.  
Nevertheless, you retain responsibility and liability for any accident or injury you cause or
incur in connection with your use of our facility; your entry onto the Saratoga Pool property
constitutes your agreement to release the Saratoga Pool Board and pool management,
its agents and employees and to hold them harmless from any liability for any accident
or personal injury and/or sustained loss or damage to life, limb, or property.  Similarly,
neither the Pool Board nor pool management will assume responsibility for loss of any
personal items you might bring onto the pool premises.  


I.  Entry to the Pool

       If you are a paid-up Saratoga pool patron of any age, we will maintain a photo i.d.
card for you at the pool’s front desk.  A member of the pool staff will check your i.d. card
before allowing you to enter the pool enclosure.  You may be asked each year to provide
a photo of yourself and each member of your family to be affixed to your i.d. card.  In order
for Saratoga Pool to remain financially solvent, we must be able to ensure that those
who enjoy our facility have paid their fees.  Therefore, without a valid, current photo i.d. on
file, you may be refused admittance.

For safety reasons, we must require that any child under 12 years old be accompanied
by an authorized pool patron who is at least 13 years old.  That person will be
responsible for the behavior and behavior of the child.

A child from 12—17 years old may attend the pool unaccompanied by an adult if:

•        He or she has passed a swim test administered by a certified lifeguard employed
by pool management and

•        His or her parent or guardian has provided written permission and

•        Has had a sticker placed on his or her pool photo i.d. card attesting permission to
enter the pool enclosure without adult supervision.

You must accompany any guests you bring to the pool.  Your guests must comply with
these rules just as you do.

Your guests must sign in at the front desk.  We must have their names, addresses, and
phone numbers for use in the event of an emergency.

Pool management may have to suspend or restrict guest privileges to alleviate
overcrowding or to maintain order.

Please do not loiter by the front desk.

We need you to take a shower before entering the pool.

Please do not bring your pets onto the Saratoga Pool property and especially within the
pool enclosure.  (This rule may be suspended for the traditional “doggie swim” on the
last night of the pool season.)

Please put your bicycle(s) in the bicycle rack outside the poolhouse.  Please do not allow
your bicycle(s) to obstruct walkways or pool entrances.


II.  CONDUCT WITHIN THE POOL ENCLOSURE

      In order for safety and order to be maintained, we ask that you comply with all
instructions of the pool staff.  The pool staff is responsible for the enforcement of these
rules and authorized to temporarily deny a patron or guest the use of the pool facility.

      Please do not bring bicycles, skateboards, roller skates, or other wheeled play
equipment into the pool enclosure.  Wheelchairs and strollers are permitted.  Small baby
carriages and strollers may be taken inside the baby-pool area when space permits, at
the discretion of the pool manager.  Strollers must employ brakes or be strapped to a
fence.

      Please wear attire intended for swimming when you enter the water.  Attire such as
cutoffs, whose fabric can come loose and obstruct pool filters, may not be worn in the
water.  If, for medical reasons, you cannot wear a normal swimsuit, please consult the
pool manager.

      To protect the health of all of our patrons and guests, we will deny swimming
privileges to anyone with a cold, cough, inflamed eyes, infection, or bandage.

      We ask that you keep the volume of any radio, CD player, or other electronic device
you bring to the pool at a level that cannot be heard beyond your immediate vicinity.  If any
other patron asks you to lower the volume, please comply politely.  We encourage your
use of headsets.

      You may drink non-alcoholic beverages when seated at tables or on chairs behind
the yellow safety line near pool’s edge.  Please, however, do not bring glass containers
into the pool enclosure; instead, please use cans or plastic containers.

      You may consume food within the pool enclosure only in the two picnic areas.  
Please dispose of all of your refuse in the trash receptacles provided.

Please do not chew gum at the pool.

      You must not take food or beverages into the water.

      You may drink alcoholic beverages on pool property only at social events sanctioned
by the Pool Board.

      You may smoke only within areas designated for the purpose.  You must bring and
use plastic ashtrays and take them home with you.  Please dispose of fully extinguished
cigarettes in trash receptacles.  If you are seen dropping or stubbing out cigarettes on
the deck, you may be asked to leave by the pool manager.  If families and children
congregate near your designated smoking area during “break time,” you may be asked
to suspend your smoking until they leave the vicinity.  Please be considerate of the
others around you.

       Please stay away from the guard stations, in order that the guards not be distracted
from their oversight of the pool.

      If you or your child cannot demonstrate sufficient swimming ability, a lifeguard may
deny access to the deep water.

      There is a lap lane demarcated by a floating rope.  Only one or two people can use it
at any one time.  Please keep this lane clear for those who wish to use it for exercise or
timed swimming.

      You must be able to swim to be permitted use of the diving board.  Only one person
at a time is permitted on the board.  You must delay your dive until you see that no one is
in the water in the diving area.  When you emerge from your dive, you must swim directly
to a ladder.  Repeated bouncing on the board and any other dangerous actions on the
diving bard are not allowed.  General swimming in the diving area is not permitted.

If the pool manager deems it necessary, he or she has the authority to require the
presence of a parent or guardian at poolside to ensure the safety of a child in the water.

Sponge balls are the only kind of ball you may play with in the water or on the deck.  The
use of sponge balls, rafts, tubes, “noodles,” kickboards, and air mattresses will be
regulated by the pool manager according to his or her determination of whether the pool
is not too crowded to endanger safety.  At times when permitted, he may restrict their use
to specific areas of the pool.

Please do not bring a water gun to the pool.  Anyone who brings one will have it held at
the front desk and returned only when he or she leaves for the day.

We cannot permit somersaults or other dangerous conduct from the pool edge or
dunking in the water.  In the water, there must be no spitting, spouting, or other
unhygienic conduct.  Similarly, we must forbid running, pushing, any kind of rough play,
and profane language anywhere on pool premises.  Anyone involved in violating this rule
will be suspended from pool attendance for the rest of the day;  if the conduct is
repeated, his or her pool pass could be revoked for the remainder of the season.

A fifteen-minute “break” period will be observed during each hour of operation, so that
children do not get overtired in the water.  When the pool staff whistles and announces
“break!,” all those younger than 18 must leave the water and may not return to the water
until the pool staff has announced the end of break time.  However, one child under the
age of three may accompany an adult in the water during break time  (you must, though,
maintain close supervision of the child).  

If your child is not toilet-trained, tight water-proof pants must be worn over his or her
diaper.  Please note that when the water is contaminated by human waste, Fairfax
County health regulations require that we close the pool for six hours and clean and
super-chlorinate the water.  Please attend closely to your young ones so that we do not
suffer any unwanted pool closures.

The baby pool may be used by children under the age of six and their parents or
guardians.  Please ask your children who are older than five to stay out of the baby-pool
area.

Small, unbreakable floating playthings may be brought to the baby pool—but, of course,
no glass bottles.


III. ACCIDENTS AND INJURIES

      Please report any accident or injury immediately to the lifeguard on duty and/or to the
pool manager.  First-aid supplies are maintained by the pool staff.  Since a written
accident report must be submitted by the pool manager, please provide all the
information you have about the accident/injury and its cause(s).