Half of Phoenix pools will be closed this summer but kids can get rides to open pools
More than half of city pools in Phoenix are expected to stay closed this summer because the city doesn’t have enough workers.
When factoring in the $2,500 hiring bonus, Phoenix says its hourly rate is about $21 for lifeguards and $25 for pool mangers.
Parks Director Cynthia Aguilar told a city subcommittee the bonus is attracting more applicants but about 40% fail to appear for the certification course and another 10-12% do not pass the course.
She said the department recently discovered a certification option for shallow water lifeguards, “And so for those individuals, they wouldn’t have the exact same responsibility of a traditional lifeguard — being required to dive maybe 14 feet in the pool, you know, and retrieve something from the bottom, so that is something we’re going to be exploring.”
Aguilar said they expect to have enough lifeguards and pool managers to open 14 of the city’s 29 pools. Transportation will be offered to provide citywide access for children.
“So, especially in the central city core here we have a lot of smaller pools that won’t be open this summer, and so we will plan to van to pool those children to pools that are close and they don’t even have to even be the pools that are close, we can take them to different pools for different experiences over the summer,” she said.
Phoenix pools will be open Memorial Day weekend (May 28-30) from noon to 6 p.m. Between June 4 and July 31, pools will be open every day noon to 6 p.m. except Fridays and a limited number of pools will be open weekends only Aug. 6 through Sept. 5.
