GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. — The public pools at three Guilford County parks are now open after a delayed start to the season due to a national lifeguard shortage.
"We were able to find some more folks, newer folks, and some returnees," said Todd Moore, the park supervisor at Bur-Mil Park. "It's kind of a weird time where you get caught in exams with high schoolers, maybe graduations or finals for college students and so it gets a little dicey at the beginning."
Moore said the pandemic prevented some young people from getting their lifeguard certifications and that eventually led to fewer guards.
"It just kind of caught up to us all at once," said Moore. "Once COVID sort of cleared up a little bit and things started to open back up we found ourselves needing some more help that just wasn’t available."
Pools and beaches across the country are dealing with staffing shortages. According to the American Lifeguard Association, a shortage of lifeguards could affect one-third to nearly half of all 300,000 public pools in the country.
"Every year is different. One year you may have plenty and the next year you'll find yourself a little short but nothing to this magnitude," said Moore about the shortage.
While the county was able to open the pools at Bur-Mil Park, Northeast Park, and Hagan-Stone Park, they still need lifeguards and more training for them. Occasionally, the pools will be open for prearranged groups at a limited capacity for staff training.
“Despite the nationwide lifeguard shortage, we’ve worked incredibly hard to hire, train, and certify lifeguard staff, but they need on the stand training to handle the large crowds we expect this summer,” said Dwight Godwin, Guilford County Parks Department Director in a press release. “We will continue to monitor this situation closely and scale up our operations as soon as we feel we can safely do so.”
The delayed opening caused some families to change their summer plans, especially during the past two weekends.
"It was very disappointing, very disappointing," said Shana Arant, who wanted to go with her family to Bur-Mil Park earlier in the season. "It sucked we had to stay in the house and kind of just play games a little family night but now we can be out."
Arant was at Bur-Mil Park Saturday with her family.
"Bur-Mil Park is a peaceful place that we like to come to, it's friendly," said Arant. "It's the people, everybody is friendly, the staff, everybody."
The pools will be open on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. Weekday hours are expected to begin on June 20.
The county is still accepting applications for lifeguards. The salary range for lifeguards starts at $15 per hour and for pool supervisors, it's $18.50 per hour.