A safety problem and a mosquito problem may lead the town of Thorsby to adopt an ordinance impacting abandoned swimming pools in the town.

At the request of public works director Terry Jackson, the council may look into creating an ordinance that would require owners of property where there is a swimming pool no longer in use to be backfilled or in another way covered to prevent rain and ground water from filling up the pool.

“We have received a number of calls about pools that are abandoned and are creating a problem,” Jackson told the council. “There is one in particular that we get calls about every year.”

The problem with any town action comes in the form that the town cannot do work on private property. Jackson said the town can contact the county health department, asking for their help in covering or backfilling the pool.

“In some cases they are creating a mosquito breeding ground or a safety problem,” Jackson said.

Town clerk Denise Gunn said she would contact town attorney John Hollis Jackson on the feasibility of creating such an ordinance.

Jackson said the town should look at requiring owners to backfill dirt into abandoned pools, solving the safety and health problems.

Jackson also announced the town would begin its regular mosquito spraying service, starting this Wednesday and running each Wednesday and Thursday evening throughout the summer.

“We usually run the sprayer through September or October whenever the temperatures get cooler,” Jackson said.

Jackson also informed the council that trash pickup would be moving to 6 a.m. each Monday and Tuesday to allow workers to do a majority of their pickups in the cooler, morning hours. The pickups will remain at 6 a.m. throughout the summer.