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But some neighbors with pools have drawn a different reaction: a call to the authorities.
Bob Powell contacted Onalaska city officials three weeks ago after his elderly neighbor’s uncovered pool, last cleaned in summer 2005, grew into a swamp-like ecosystem, with four feet of rotting leaves, green stagnant water and dead rodents floating atop the muck.
After interventions by city and La Crosse County officials, the pool finally was cleaned Friday by a private company. But Powell and his wife, Veda, were forced to cancel a planned Fourth of July cookout at their home in the Holiday Heights area of Onalaska, Wis.
“How are we supposed to eat brats with a dead rat floating 20 feet away?” he said.
The experience highlights one downside of backyard pools — untended, they can become smelly, unsightly neighborhood nuisances, with the risk of children and pets falling in and drowning in the muck. In shallow pools, the stagnant water can become a fertile breeding ground for mosquitoes and other insects.
Ron Berg, environmental health manager for La Crosse County Health Department, said his department deals with about four “problem pools” a year. Most, he said, occur because the landowner no longer lives there or, in the case of Powell’s neighbor, is elderly and unable to maintain it.
Berg said most landowners quickly take steps to clean up the pool. If they don’t, they can be cited for ordinance violations by the county or the municipality.
In Onalaska, offenders are issued a warning giving them two weeks to fix the problem, said Jason Gilman, Onalaska land use and development director. If still not compliant, they’re issued another letter, giving them 24 hours. After that, they face daily fines, typically of $500 to $1,000, until it’s resolved.
“But usually it doesn’t come to that, thankfully,” Berg said.
Powell said he was worried mosquitoes, especially those that transmit the West Nile virus and La Crosse encephalitis, would breed in the stagnant pool.
However, Dave Geske, mosquito control officer for the La Crosse County health department, said the risk of disease-causing mosquitoes isn’t as great in deeper pools. Typically, mosquitoes that spread West Nile and encephalitis hatch in 2 feet of water or less, he said.
That means homeowners should be extra vigilant about emptying children’s pools, bird baths, drain spouts and other apparatuses that can hold water at least every other day, Geske said.
Powell, whose backyard features a pristine, well-tended pool, said many people don’t realize the time and maintenance a pool requires.
“It’s just like babysitting,” he said. “You just can’t leave it sit for long.”
Dan Simmons can be reached at (608) 791-8217 or dsimmons@lacrossetribune.com.
