For a lot of people, Memorial Day Weekend is the first day of the year that they hit the pools, and, in past years, there have been a whole lot of people who’ve relied on the pools at Guilford County parks for that fun in the sun.
This year, however, those planning to enjoy the park pools got a splash of cold water in the face when they heard that the county wasn’t opening the pools due to a shortage of lifeguards.
It’s surprising the county was caught “off guard” because, while there is a labor shortage in the country, Guilford County officials were – at Guilford County Board of Commissioners meetings – talking about the need to address the lifeguard situation months ago.
Regardless, on Memorial Day this year, the county’s parks’ webpage was still reporting that the 2022 pool season schedule would be provided later – perhaps in early June.
Guilford County officials stated that its public pools wouldn’t be opening this Memorial Day Weekend as usual due to a staffing shortage. The affected pools are at Bur-Mil Park at 5834 Bur-Mill Club Road in Greensboro, Northeast Park at 3441 Northeast Park Drive in Gibsonville and Hagan-Stone Park at 5920 Hagan-Stone Park Road in Pleasant Garden.
Guilford County Parks Department Director Dwight Godwin was the bearer of the bad news.
“The usual Memorial Day Weekend opening for summer pools is being delayed due to a lifeguard shortage,” he noted in a prepared statement. “We are looking at the second weekend of June for our new target opening date with limited capacity or date restrictions based on the number of new hires we can secure.”
In fact, the county used the announcement to tell any lifeguards who need work to please contact the county. If that’s you, the pay for county pool lifeguards starts at $15 an hour and the pay for pool supervisors starts at $18.50 an hour.
Guilford County is looking for applicants who are already certified as lifeguards, but the county is willing to train the right candidates.
County officials thanked residents “for their patience and understanding.”
County administrative staff (especially parks admin) should be required to be lifeguard and first responder trained. Also at least some parks staff should be certified to teach these as well.
Our county officials have known about these issues for months and here’s what taxpayer get……a lot of energy and time trying to convince them to vote to raise their own taxes so …what? We can have understaffed county services? Why would any voter want to give the county more money when they can’t even provide basic parks service in a timely manner? They cant even manage the smallest of issues how can anyone trust their spending and management on other more serious matters?