Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/344348
matter, subject to the same drawn-out pro- cesses that seem to define civil jurisprudence. And, unlike humans, corporations cannot be sent to prison — or executed — for criminal wrongdoing. The owners, directors and offi- cers could be so penalized, but that rarely has happened in the history of corporations in this country. So it is that Sarasota County and the Florida Department of Health find themselves at odds with Bob's Boathouse (BBH) — or rather its owners, directors and officers — as it flouts county zoning and noise ordinances and operates a permitted fountain as an illegal swimming pool, in defiance of state law and a cease-and-desist order from the Department of Health. We have previously pointed out in this space that frustrated Sarasota County Sheriff's dep- uties have taken to arresting managers at Bob's for continued violations of the county's noise ordinances, since simply citing them for noncompliance was having no effect. Now the Department of Health, after spend- ing two months exhorting BBH to keep patrons out of the fountain, is on the cusp of a long, expensive (to the taxpayers) legal process to force compliance and the closure of the illegal pool … all because BBH has essentially thumbed its corporate nose at existing laws and ordinances and the standards of orderly, law-abiding conduct in a civilized society. As reported last week by The Sarasota News Leader, patrons continue to use the fountain as a swimming pool. Large pieces of furniture, apparently placed there by BBH personnel, make it obvious that the fountain is intended to be used as a recreational pool. Yet, the "pool" is so out of compliance with state health reg- ulations for a public swimming facility that Health department employees ovetaxed their computer system as they entered all of the violations of state regulations, in seeking to document the situation for the issuance of a cease-and-desist order. According to the Department of Health, the "pool" is too close to food service areas. It does not have the required width of pad around it for safe use. It does not have a proper filtration system on its circulating pumps. It does not have a system for regulating the proper chem- ical balance of the water or for controlling bacterial contamination. And it apparently does not have anti-entrapment devices on any drains or water-circulating system inlets. That last point is a serious concern. Photos obtained by the News Leader show small children playing in the pool. Most regulations for the operation of public pools now require anti-entrapment devices as a consequence of a tragic mishap in North Carolina. A young child sat on a drain in a public pool in Raleigh and, before she could be rescued, had 80 percent of her intestines sucked out of her anus by the The cavalier and uncaring attitude of Bob's Boathouse in allowing young children to play in an illegal swimming pool, with the possibility of grievous injury or death lurking just beneath the surface, should be shocking to the people of Sarasota County. OPINION Sarasota News Leader July 11, 2014 Page 91