Staying Afloat
If residents of Seven Fields are hoping to spend their summer free time at Town Park Pool, they may have to change their plans. The pool's well of staff has dried up — it has only seven lifeguards this year, a major drop from typical numbers, with only a few available to work full time.
The dilemma is part of a larger shortage as public pools across Butler County and the region face a dearth of lifeguards, along with a lackluster and stormy few weeks to begin the season.
“We've been aggressive in recruiting — we've contacted the local schools and colleges and put out ads on Indeed — I, honest to God, don't know what to attribute (the shortage) to,” said Tom Smith, borough manager.
Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau president Jack Cohen pointed out that the shortage isn't just a problem in Butler County. Only eight of Pittsburgh's 18 public pools were able to open this season due to a lack of lifeguards. “It's a problem around the region,” Cohen said. “This could be a part of the ugly end of COVID, but hopefully, maybe now that kids are back to learning and know they can make some extra money, maybe it will go away on its own. Right now, we have to look at different ways to attract new lifeguards.”
Pay, hours and backyard pools
The Town Park Pool has reduced its hours to Fridays through Sundays, noon to 8 p.m., and refunded some season pass memberships. Smith said the pool normally fields around 10 to 12 lifeguards each year, and that three or four of the lifeguards hired in 2020 didn't come back in 2021.
Part of the problem, Smith thinks, could be that young lifeguards don't want to work 40 hours a week.
“Some of our lifeguards are 15 or 16 years old — this is their summer vacation. They were as cooped up as we were, and they don't want to be chained to a job,” Smith said. “That's why we need that 10 to 12 person rotation to accommodate their lives.”
Other jobs in the area that offer higher pay may also be an obstacle for Town Park Pool, Smith said.
“We raised our hourly rate this year from the minimum wage to $9 an hour,” he said, “but we're competing with other employers like Dick's, Chick-Fil-A and McDonald's, which pay more at an hourly rate.”
A number of variables, including bad weather and an increase in permits to build private, in-ground pools, are working against public pools, and visitor turnout has “not been stellar,” Smith said. Already, on some weekends, only 150 people have come to the pool over the course of three days.“The pool gods have not been smiling down,” Smith said.Mother nature's impactBad weather has also affected the EDCO pool in Evans City, according to pool manager Cindy Caldwell. However, she doesn't think it's any worse this year than in years past.“Cold days definitely have an impact, whether it's this year or last year or any year,” she said. “It's just part of the business.”Caldwell said that the lifeguard shortage hasn't hit the EDCO pool as severely, and attendance has actually been good this year. The EDCO pool, which was renovated two summers ago, recently opened a new aerobics class and continues to host a swim team, lessons and scuba classes throughout the week. Memberships are up by 30% since 2020.“We're very fortunate to have 14 lifeguards here, which is around the same number as previous years. I don't think we had quite as many applications this year, but we currently have a full staff of lifeguards,” Caldwell said.The EDCO pool pays minimum wage, but has a low turnover rate. Caldwell said lifeguards often start as high schoolers and return every summer through college until they have their first adult job.Delayed openings at AlamedaAlameda Waterpark in Butler delayed its reopening by two weeks due to a lack of lifeguards earlier this month. The waterpark had originally planned to reopen June 5, but ended up opening June 19 with reduced hours, closing on Mondays and Tuesdays altogether.The pool typically has 25 to 30 lifeguards, but this year only has 15.“In a normal year, we'd be open 12:15 to 7 daily,” said Lance Welliver, Butler County Parks and Recreation director. “But we're fortunate to be open five days a week this year.”The county salary board recently voted to increase the pay for lifeguards from $8.75 per hour to $10 per hour in an effort to attract more lifeguards. The board also established several bonus opportunities, including lifeguard certification reimbursement up to $200 and bonuses for teaching swimming classes and recruiting new lifeguards.“We've heard people talking about (the bonuses), and we've gotten some more people applying and going through the certification process,” Welliver said.A legacy of training in CranberryCranberry Township Waterpark hasn't seen as much of a decrease in lifeguard availability.“We're experiencing a little bit of that — we see it on the horizon, but it's not affecting our operations too much,” said Pete Geis, Cranberry Parks and Recreation director. “We typically have around 60 lifeguards at Cranberry Waterpark, but this year we have more around 50.”Geis credits the park's efforts in recruitment and retention for the reason Cranberry wasn't as hard hit by the lifeguard shortage.He said the facility experienced a greater shortage of lifeguards around three or four years ago, but has built up training and retention since then, and now does a lot during the offseason to contact potential new hires. Around 70% of lifeguards who are hired at the waterpark return in future years.“We really have a fantastic community here,” Geis said. “We try to grow our own lifeguards. About 20 of our lifeguards this year are new hires, people we trained at certification classes in May, and we're already working on retaining them for the future.”This year, Cranberry Waterpark did not compensate for lifeguard training as they have in years past — something Town Park Pool and Alameda both spent money on. Training can run a new lifeguard around $300.Geis said he is planning to return to incentivizing training next year. They still have some other incentivized programs, such as bonuses in August when lifeguards tend to leave, and re-certification of their employees for free when their certifications expire.Cranberry recreation programs manager Dave Hutner leads a number of different internal and external training and certification programs at the pool. He says that running training through Cranberry Township Waterpark helps funnel new lifeguards into the waterpark. “Just because they take a class here doesn't guarantee them a job with Cranberry — they still have to fill out our application,” Hutner said. “But it does filter them in to us.”In a typical year, Hutner said that he certifies around 75 people as lifeguards, about half of whom are existing staff being recertified. The waterpark has just recently opened up a new lifeguard certification class.“It's about creating an ongoing cycle of training highly qualified people who are trained above that basic level,” Hutner said.Geis says that aside from the storms and unseasonably cool weather this month, the Cranberry waterpark is doing well.“When we have nice weather, the pool is in great shape,” he said. “Our memberships are far beyond what they were in 2019. We've seen a 10% increase in memberships since then. People are eager to get back out.”
