McKoy Pool — Local services in Decatur

We have an annual family event at this park. Usually we don’t use the pool but this year we decided it would be awesome for the kids to swim at the event. A few of the mothers decided we would take the kids and supervise while they swam. The entrance fees were noted, and we were quoted a price of $32 for our group. We were a little short so my sister went back to the car to get more cash. Once we came back with the additional money, the young lady at the front gate told us the price had risen to $42. In less than 5 minutes. I asked her why and she started telling me “we have no way to keep account of the people who come in and people always try to sneak people in”. What? What in the world does that have to do with the price changing? And what does people sneaking into the pool have to do with us who are clearly trying to pay. I don’t like to scream racism/classism but of course the thought crossed my mind because why on earth would this girl be telling me that they have issues with people sneaking in when it had NOTHING to do with what we were doing? At this point my sister became uncomfortable and decided not to swim nor let her children swim. She left and so now our price should drop because we have less people right? Wrong. Now with $40 in hand, with less people than when we were quoted $32 then $42, she tells me that we’re still short! Ok now I feel like I’m being punked smh. My other sister and I inform her that according to their posted prices, based on the number of people we have now, it should be $28. She appeared visibly annoyed (I guess she thought we couldn’t add) and still looked back at her manager for approval. I have served in the US Air Force. Been around the world twice. But I grew up in Decatur and I have NEVER felt the type of humiliation I felt today just trying to pay my hard earned money to take my children, nieces and nephews swimming. At best, I’m baffled as to why someone who can’t do basic math would be handling money. At worst it feels the ugly side of gentrification (in a neighborhood I grew up in no less smh) and I’m more disgusted that my 3yr old had to witness that. Good bye Decatur where it was...

The life guards especially the head life guard are very unprofessional. On Tuesday 8,2021 the head life guard of your Mccoy pool came off very rude from the beginning of my visit along with 2 other parents. We had 5 children each and he was upset stating we are a camp and can not come in. The 2 other parents and I both explained to him that we are not a camp, he then process to give one of the parent a phone to talk to the manager of Dekalb district pools because he felt we were still a camp. The manager after having the situation explain to him that we are not a camp just 3 mothers who came to a pool together he then decides to let us enter. Later on while it started to rain and everyone had to get out of the pool one of the parents walked in on the life guards discussing us which is very unprofessional. They saying we were lieing and they did not want to watch our group of children, if your pool was not pass capacity and we were following the rules your staff should not have had an issue especially being that we paid our way. A different life guard herself stated we seem like family which after their manager said it's ok let them enter there should not have been any problem nor further discussion much less in front of our children. We were discriminated against and it was not fair to treat us mothers nor our children that way. We were in there less then 1 hour and was not...

Seconding the review regarding the pool being closed. A wastewater issue being the stated reason with no other explanation nor timelines raises more concerns. What does wastewater even mean? Is the pool full of sewage and human waste?

A reply stating that there are other city pools simply underscores how little the city understands their constituents they are meant to serve. When did this start? Did I take my kids to swim in wastewater before the issue was announced? (To be clear, it was never announced) When will this be resolved? What’s the extent of the issue? Why is there no information about what is going on?

Yes, we have been visiting other pools. If McKoy pool never existed, that would be fine. But it does and it’s the only pool south of college is now closed indefinitely with no explanation. How could anyone think this is acceptable?

The pool itself is fine, when open and not...