As Pools Open, Watch for Scalpers

As most of Reston's pools open this weekend, you may notice some flatlanders non-residents sharing the lap lane with you. How, you may ask? Apparently there's a burgeoningfledgling marketplace of one, in which an RA resident attempted to scalp their plastic fantastic pool passes for the year. Quel horreur! BFFs at Reston Now, give us the shocking news in blockquote:

RA staff noticed a posting on Craigslist.com offering pool passes for sale. The poster said he owns a few homes in Reston and wants to recover the transfer fee of $260 he recently paid when closing on his most recent property.

“I’ve paid for the yearly fees already,” the poster writes. “A single or family pool pass set can be purchased if you email me with your contact info and your address. The Reston Association loophole allows renters with a valid lease … get a pass for the year of 2014. The term of the rental can be a day, or weekend or any time period. I am thinking $100 per adult. $75 rental and your $25 pass fee.”

Naturally, all this is strictly verboten by RA regulations, which state that the passes are non-transferrable. But what can we do to make sure we're not sharing the wading pool with an unlicensed Herndonian, or (shudder) someone slumming it from "Great" Falls?

Fortunately, the RA has, as they say in the movies, a Plan. As an aside in another article about pool passes, the RA says they are planning to pilot a "on-site code" system for pools and tennis facilities in 2015. That's good, but we're not sure it's quite good enough. After all, our precious fluids are at stake!

Fortunately, in this era of high-tech identification and enforcement, there is a solution:



The only drawback? It's going to be hard to get a tan in that suit.