WELLINGTON NORTH – Outdoor pools in Mount Forest and Arthur will be open this summer with a change in operating hours.
For over a decade, the township has been able to employ an average of 12 full-time lifeguards each year, but this season, the job ads aren’t getting as much attention.
Five full-time guards and five part-time guards have been hired, allowing pools to operate this summer, but township staff have had to rejig programming and operating hours to accommodate the lifeguard shortage.
Instead of running swimming lessons from 9am to noon on weekdays, as was the case in previous years, swimming lessons are being offered in the afternoon.
Other swim programming, including public swims, day camps, aquafit, lane swims and swim teams, remains intact but with reduced hours.
For complete pools schedules in Arthur and Mount Forest, visit: https://www.wellington-north.com/community/programs-activities/pools-and-swimming.
At a May 24 meeting, council discussed the challenges of finding pool staff.
Councillor Sherry Burke said she is glad lane swimming would be happening.
“We all know from the open house that [it] was a very important program,” she said.
But with less staff, there must be fewer bathers – 30 are permitted in the pool at any time this summer, compared to upwards of 150 at a time in past years, depending on staffing levels.
The bather-to-guard ratio, set by Lifesaving Society Canada, allows a guard on the deck and a guard in the bath house to rotate through 15 minute “scanning sessions,” recreation coordinator Mandy Jones explained to councillors.
The township hopes to hire a program assistant to collect cash from incoming bathers, said Jones, potentially freeing up a lifeguard from the bathhouse and increasing the pool capacity.
Though fewer lifeguards means less money spent on wages, there will be less income generated from the swims than in other years because of the reduced pool capacity.
To try and address the short supply of lifeguards, who are often secondary or post-secondary students, the township is now covering 100 per cent of recertification and 50 per cent of the cost to newly certify a lifeguard/swim instructor.
The cost of the bronze medallion and cross programs (needed to advance to a lifeguard) has also been reduced by $50 from $200 to $150.
Lifesaving Society Canada dropped the minimum age required for lifeguard certification from 16 to 15 years old, but those being hired as lifeguards are required to be at least 16 years old.
