Pay increases at Alameda Park to attract staffers
The county salary board approved increased pay rates and cash incentives at its Wednesday meeting for all seasonal positions at Alameda Park in an effort to attract lifeguards, maintenance workers, cashiers and camp counselors.
Lance Welliver, county parks and recreation director, said the high school and college students who normally fill the positions are not applying for the seasonal spots as they have in years past.
Leslie Osche, the county commissioners chairwoman who sits on the salary board along with the other two commissioners, said the pay increases are in response to widespread difficulty in recruiting workers.
The former pay for full-time lifeguards was $8.75 per hour for the first year of employment with the county, $9 per hour the second year and $9.25 the third year.
Part-time lifeguards were paid $8.75 per hour.
The 2021 rate is $10 per hour with eligibility for certification reimbursement up to $200, an additional $200 for instructing at least three swimming classes, $200 for working at least half of the lane-rental sessions, $500 for recruiting another lifeguard and $500 for working more than 250 hours in 2021.
Welliver said due to the lack of lifeguards, the pool at Alameda is closed Monday and Tuesday and closes at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday.
The pool is open normal hours on Friday and Saturday only, he said.
The swimming lessons traditionally held each summer at Alameda were eliminated in 2021 because most of the lifeguards who would serve as instructors are new.
“They don't have the expertise at this time that we'd like them to,” Welliver said.
While he'd like to employ the normal 30 guards, he will settle for 20 this year, he said.
Welliver said officials from Jeff Ellis Management, the company the county hired in March to operate the pool this summer, contacted him to report it will be unable to do so because the company is also struggling to hire lifeguards and other employees to work at the pools and parks they manage.
Osche pointed out that Jeff Ellis Management is no longer charging the county for services in 2021, even though the company provided Welliver with eight or nine lifeguards.
Welliver said many pools have closed after finding it impossible to operate after the coronavirus pandemic, including Armco Park in Slippery Rock Township and the City of Pittsburgh, which closed 10 of its 18 pools this year.
He said Alameda remains an affordable option for swimmers at $6 per person.
The salary board also increased the hourly pay rate of the head camp counselor by $1.25 per hour to a starting wage of $11.50.
Seasonal cashier and maintenance worker hourly rates also were increased.
