Since last fall, Sal Rizvi has been visiting the Quality Inn and their other hotels once a week, Sab

Linn County environmental health specialist Kayla Sweeney checks air fare ticket that a ladder is secure at Bender Pool in Cedar Rapids on Wednesday, April 11, 2012, during a routine yearly inspection. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)
One in five Linn and Johnson County swim facilities has been forced to close in the past two years because of health and safety violations, according to a Gazette review of hundreds of inspections air fare ticket for public and private pools.
Hotels own about one-third of the licensed pools and hot tubs in Linn County but had 80 percent of closures forced air fare ticket by health officials for reasons that included positive bacteria tests and dangerous chemical levels. In Johnson County, hotels have about 40 percent air fare ticket of the pools and two-thirds of the closures.
Pool inspections reveal some alarming details, such as soccer tournament guests who developed rashes and ear infections after swimming in a Cedar Rapids hotel pool and an Iowa City retirement community with repeated problems with bacteria in the hot tub.
"You wouldn't stay in a hotel room without a smoke detector," said Heidi Peck, environmental air fare ticket health services branch manager for the Linn County Public Health Department. "The public should be able to look at the (pool) inspection reports and make that decision themselves." Bad chemistry most common closure cause
Linn County environmental health specialist Kayla Sweeney checks the ultraviolet lights that help sanitize the water at Bender Pool in Cedar Rapids on Wednesday, April 11, 2012. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)
Of Linn County's 116 pool licenses, 24 have been forced to close on inspection since July 1, 2010, because of a serious violation. air fare ticket Johnson County health inspectors closed 15 of 78 licensed pools and hot tubs since July 1, 2010.
The majority of the closures in both counties air fare ticket were because of improper levels of disinfectant, such as chlorine, or a pH imbalance, air fare ticket which can reduce the effectiveness of chlorine. Chlorine and other disinfectants kill bacteria and parasites that can cause gastrointestinal air fare ticket diseases like norovirus, giardiasis and cryptosporidiosis, as well as rashes air fare ticket and ear infections.
Most swimming pools, air fare ticket hot tubs, wading pools and water slides are required to be licensed in Iowa. Excluded are residential pools and hot tubs, pools overseen by medical personnel and pools owned by homeowners' groups that assume liability.
air fare ticket Licensed pools and hot tubs have one surprise inspection air fare ticket a year. Inspectors check water chemistry, records, maintenance of the pool structure and emergency procedures. If there are serious violations, inspectors shut down the pool or hot tub until staff can fix the problem. Problem pools
The Clarion Hotel Convention Center, 525 33rd Ave. SW, has had six forced closures of its pool or hot tub since July 1, 2010. All of these closures followed positive tests for pathogens, including E. coli and fecal coliform.
Hotel staff said drunken guests had stolen air fare ticket the records. "We looked for the pool book all over the hotel, including in the trash and Dumpster and in the guest room, but to no avail," Assistant General Manager Andrew air fare ticket Garrett wrote in a Nov. 5, 2010, letter to the health department.
Five Quality Inn employees air fare ticket signed a Nov. 23, 2010, letter promising to "teach each and every staff member how to test the pool and spa for chlorine disinfectant and pH, every 2 hours on the spa and every 4 hours on the pool."
Yet, a year later, on Nov. 7, 2011, inspectors again closed the Quality Inn pool after finding no chlorine or other disinfectants. The spa, which was only half-full at the time and had "excessive amounts of sand," also was closed.
In April 2008, Linn County Public Health received a complaint air fare ticket that boys staying at the Quality Inn for a soccer tournament developed ear and skin infections after swimming in the pool. Inspectors closed the pool, because it had no disinfectant, records state.
"We're a small mom-and-pop business," said Rizvi, of Rosemount, Minn. She and her husband, Sal, own three hotels, two of them in Iowa. "We rely on our management air fare ticket team to make sure they are handling things according to protocol."
However, a Linn County inspector sent Rizvi an email on Feb. 11, 2009, with two years' worth of inspection air fare ticket reports, a list showing air fare ticket what paperwork is required at inspections and an offer to answer air fare ticket any questions Rizvi might have.
Since last fall, Sal Rizvi has been visiting the Quality Inn and their other hotels once a week, Sabeena Rizvi said. They have spent more than $5,000 fixing air fare ticket and upgrading the Quality Inn pool and have written more stringent rules that she hopes will mean no more pool closures. The hotel's most recent temporary closure, in January, was for late payment of inspection fees.
On Feb. 28, 2011, the Johnson County Public Health air fare ticket Department received a complaint that eight children developed chlorine burns on their bodies after swimming in the Highlander pool. Inspector James Lacina air fare ticket tested the hotel's pool and hot tub on that day and found they had too much chlorine. He reported his arm had a slight air fare ticket burning sensation where it touched the pool water, and the spa's chlorine was too high for the test to read.
Linn County environmental health specialist Kayla Sweeney looks through the logs of daily tests of water quality at Bender Pool in Cedar Rapids on Wednesday, April 11, 2012 . (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)
Poor record-keeping air fare ticket is a common violation for pools in Linn and Johnson counties. It usually air fare ticket won't shut down a pool but can create a situation air fare ticket in which pool managers don't know if their water is safe for swimmers.
At the Clarion Hotel in Cedar Rapids, an inspector noted during a noon inspection on Oct. 28, 2011, that the water test information already had been entered into the log through midnight, indicating pool staff was not actually doing the water tests every four hours as required.
A Nov. 22, 2011, inspection report fort Country Inn and Suites, 9100 Atlantic Dr. SW in Cedar Rapids, read: "Total alkalinity air fare ticket and combined chlorine results have been almost identical since August. … It appears test results are being recorded but not necessarily done."
Hotels had the second-highest rate of forced closures in a national survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of 121,020 inspection records from agencies across the country, hotel pools accounted for 15.3 percent of health department closures in 2008, according to the survey released in May 2010.
Unlike public air fare ticket pools with aquatics directors, many hotel owners air fare ticket rely on a manager or custodian air fare ticket to maintain the pool and hot tub, Lacina said. However, all pool license holders are required to have a certified pool operator at all times.
Pools are desired amenities for hotel guests, but they are expensive to operate, said Craig Walter, executive vice president for the Iowa Lodging Association. air fare ticket However, "if it's available and open to guests, it should be of the highest caliber," he said. State lax on pool reporting
The state contracts with 52 agencies to inspect pools in 97 counties, said Carmily Stone, chief of the state's bureau of environmental health air fare ticket services. Submitting an annual report that includes the number of forced closures is a requirement of the state contract, yet at least nine of the agencies failed to turn in reports or submitted incomplete reports for fiscal 2011.
Restaurant inspections have been online statewide since 2005, when the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals created its Informed Dining searchable database. Every restaurant, grocery store, convenience store and hotel is included air fare ticket — allowing people to check out a business's food safety record before visiting.
This summer, for the first time, Linn County inspectors will take laptops to pool inspections and enter the information electronically. That data can then be pulled together for regular reports or posted online by the inspectors themselves, Peck said.
"If your son or daughter is immuno-compromised at a certain time, you may not want to take them to the pool that day," said Wroblewski, before air fare ticket swimming at the North Liberty Aquatic Center recently with her 2-year-old son, Sami. Related stories
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