Metropolis swimmers’ plans for an outdoor summer season swim are useless in the water.
Grownup lap swim and different programs won’t be returning to metropolis swimming pools as they open for the summer season, the Parks Division stated on Tuesday. The division blamed the cuts on a “national shortage of lifeguards,” which has been plaguing public swimming pools nationwide for the reason that COVID-19 pandemic started. The town’s skill to rent and retain lifeguards has but to completely get better, the division stated.
In an announcement, the division stated it determines yearly which swimming pools and seashores to workers in line with the ultimate variety of lifeguards it is ready to recruit. Primarily based on each day head counts, it adjusts protection as wanted, the division stated in an announcement.
“Like the entire country, it’s been a challenge recruiting enough qualified people who can pass the NYC Lifeguard requirements, and pandemic impacts on recruitment continue,” NYC Parks spokeswoman Crystal Howard informed Gothamist in an announcement. “As we do every year, we are continuing to train and certify lifeguards up to the July 4th weekend.”
Outdoor swimming pools might be open each day for normal swim from 11 a.m. to three p.m. and from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. beginning Tuesday, June twenty eighth.
Along with grownup lap, different programs impacted embrace senior swim, Study to Swim, water aerobics, swim crew and day camp, in line with the division.
The Parks Division additionally canceled outdoor swim programs in 2021, saying the pandemic made it tough to rent and prepare new lifeguards. The staffing scarcity led some Rockaway Seaside lifeguards to protest the grueling hours and doubtlessly harmful situations.
Lifeguards work 5 to 6 days per week, and first-year lifeguards make not less than $16 an hour, for a weekly wage of practically $800, the division stated in a recruitment electronic mail despatched out in January.