City of Tyler in need of lifeguards before the pool can open for the summer

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - With temperatures rising and summer almost here, pools across East Texas are getting ready to open.

The City of Tyler’s Fun Forest Pool is two weeks away from opening but a shortage in life guards may delay that.

“We are going to do everything we can to get the pool opened. We’ve been doing all of our maintenance, getting it cleaned, the one thing we’re missing is our lifeguards,” said Kandice Johnson, the Recreation Manager for parks and recreation. She said they have been doing everything they can to get people in time for opening. Ideally they’d need at least ten lifeguards.

“Ten usually means we have enough to rotate, they get the proper breaks that they need, so that they can eat, they’re not getting overheated,” Johnson said. “Right now, the truth is, we only have three. That’s three out of the ten, so you can see how we’re struggling right now.”

They are tentatively set to open for Memorial Day weekend, and then regularly starting June 4. That is, if enough people are hired. Johnson said they’ve increased the pay to $13 dollars an hour from $12 last year.

“We are paying for certification, in the past it was more of you have to work a certain amount of hours then we reimbursed you. Now you apply, we’ll send you to someone to get certified, and then we pay for it all.”

As for the responsibilities, “First and foremost they are there to monitor safety, make sure that people are not running, doing everything we can to avoid injuries, and enforcing rules. But then also being responsible for making sure the pool is clean, checking chemicals, making sure we have our inventory, our supplies, whatever we need to make sure that the pool is ready and set to go,” she said.

With it being summer, Johnson said they are willing to work with applicants.

“It’s not you come and you have to be there every single day and there’s no days off. It’s summer, we understand that, so we will work with you. It’s just about communication,” Johnson said. “You let us know upfront, sometimes that’s hard, but you do your best and we’ll do our best to accommodate.”

If you’re interested in applying you can visit the application link.

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