Community pools seeing shortage in lifeguards

Lifeguards are an essential part to any public community pool. They do more than just watch, they keep everyone safe with help from their certifications in CPR and First Aid.

“It’s essential to have enough lifeguards to monitor all the kids in the pool, make sure everybody stays safe,” Stacey Bennett said on the importance of lifeguards at pools.

Parks and Recreation is facing a shortage of lifeguards. There are a few factors that are affecting the amount of lifeguards at the four public pools in Yuma.

“We use the American Red Cross national curriculum for lifeguard training. So, that would be one requirement you have to possess, is American Red Cross current life guarding certification, as well as CPR and First Aid,” AJ Mosqueda mentioned when talking on lifeguards. Potential lifeguards applying must already posses these skills before even thinking about applying. In addition, some water features at some pools require lifeguards to be 16 and older. With these requirements in place, it limits a pool of potential candidates.

This year, community pools are operating with 35 less lifeguards than last year. The shortage is causing some pool programs and lessons to be reduced — or even canceled.

The shortage of lifeguards shouldn’t affect the safety of pool goers.

“We’re not having the shortage where it’s an unsafe environment, but we’re having to the point where we’re going to have to reduce programming possibly if we don’t have enough staff to staff how we normally would,” Mosqueda adds.

With safety as a number one priority, you can still keep cool at any Parks and Rec. pool without worry.