BRIAR LAKE, North Dakota — Staff at the municipal pool will give session announcements in person this week after swimmers complained that messages over the public-address system included remarks unrelated to the facility. The decision affects opening notices and reminders to leave the water, not the pool's alarm equipment. Morning classes and public swimming will continue at their usual times.
The complaints began during the adult session last Thursday. Instead of the normal five-minute warning, several patrons heard a woman asking for a kitchen light to be left on. Receptionist Celia Nordin said she first assumed someone had accidentally pressed the desk microphone while making a telephone call. The microphone was in its cradle, and the only employee at the desk had been processing a membership renewal.
That would ordinarily have ended the matter. The desk and pool hall share an aging amplifier, installed when cassette announcements were replaced with a small digital player. A technician has previously repaired a loose connection that allowed a nearby radio to be heard through one speaker. The parks department had already budgeted for new equipment next spring.
Swimmer Ruth Ives raised a different concern after the session. She said the message asked for the light above the back steps, not the kitchen light, and used a particular expression her husband uses when he works late. She did not recognize the speaker as her husband. What bothered her, she said, was hearing an ordinary request from home in a room where it had no reason to be made.
Two other patrons separately described the announcement to Nordin. One heard a reminder to put bread in the freezer. The other heard someone asking that a spare key be returned to a blue dish. Their accounts agreed about when the message began and about a small cough before the words. They did not agree on the words themselves. Nordin wrote each account down before arranging for the patrons to speak together.
On Friday the pool played its standard closing message at reduced volume while four employees listened from different positions. They all heard the same instruction to leave the water. Nordin said the department has received no complaints from children's classes or the evening swimming club. The reports so far come from adults who use the pool between six and eight in the morning, when there is little other noise in the hall.
Technician Emil Sutter examined the player on Monday. Its memory contains seven announcement files, all recorded by a former parks employee. Sutter supplied copies to the Register; none includes a reference to a house, a key or food. He said that does not establish what came through the speakers on Thursday. The microphone circuit and amplifier could carry sound that never passed through the player.
During Monday's early session, patron Leon Baird made a recording on his phone. It contains splashing, a brief click and the ordinary closing announcement. Baird said he heard the instruction about the blue dish while making it. He recognized the voice coming from the speaker as his own, only slower. His wife, listening to the file later, heard only the pool announcement.
Baird said the key in question is for a garden shed and has been kept on a hook for several years. The dish was broken during a move. He had not mentioned either object at the pool before Thursday. He does not want the city to investigate his house, he said, and asked that his account be included as a complaint about the sound system rather than a request for assistance.
The parks board authorized $460 for a replacement player on Tuesday. Until it arrives, lifeguards will walk the poolside to give the five-minute warning. Nordin said staff should not test unfamiliar messages on patrons or invite people to supply private phrases for comparison. Two swimmers have transferred to the afternoon session; neither has asked to cancel a membership.
Ives still attends in the morning. After describing the announcement, she asked the receptionist whether the voice had finished its sentence. In her house, the request about the light is normally followed by a second request about the door. She said she left the water before it reached that point. Her complaint form asks that any further message be written down in full, but not played back to the group.