Letter: Thanks for Response to Wayland Pool Situation

Dear Editor,

On behalf of the board of the Wayland Community Pool, I want to offer our most sincere thanks to our public safety team. We had an incident at the community pool on Sunday morning involving the chemicals used to maintain the water quality in the pool. As soon as the incident was identified, our employees took necessary steps to safeguard the public. The users of the pool were never exposed to any risk and our staff took steps to safeguard themselves as well.

The fire department was on site almost immediately and Chief [Vinnie] Smith, who was not on duty, was among the first to arrive. The police department was equally responsive and did an excellent job communicating with the public. Our fire captain quickly identified the potential risks and elevated the situation to the Massachusetts Hazardous Materials team since our department is not equipped to deal with this type of a situation. While the issue took time to resolve, our fire and police departments remained on site and were a lynch pin in the ultimate solution.

I was on site for almost 12 hours, as were many of our public safety team. As I left, after a long Sunday, I was greeted by an officer with a smile and a funny remark. The care and concern of our public safety team makes me proud to be from Wayland.

Sincerely,

Benjamin Downs
Wayland Community Pool