Lifeguard applications are now coming into the City of London, after it closed six wading pools recently, due to a lack of qualified supervision.
If enough qualified applicants can get hired soon, there is a possibility that some of the closed pools will be re-opened.
Longtime Byron resident Lois Taylor, can't believe that for the first time since she moved to Byron 27 years ago, the wading pool there is closed.
She says she’s frustrated. “I was looking forward to when school got out, the pool would be open ‘cause that's when it usually opens and no pool this year.”
There are 13 wading pools in the city, with six closed due to the lack of lifeguards.
Besides Byron, the wading pools closed are Murray, Smith, Meredith, McMahen and University Heights.
The city says it's done everything to try to find enough lifeguards.
“We’ve contacted every candidate that's taken a national lifeguard qualification with us. There have been extensive things we've done to try to avoid this,” says the city’s aquatic manager, Lynn Loubert.
However, lifeguard Erica Garrett says she would have applied, but never saw job openings for the hard to fill positions online.
“I would've definitely done mornings, weekends, afternoons, like anything. I mean a lot of the city likes to go to the wading pools in the afternoon. It's a fun and safe place to go because there are lifeguards.”
The city is hoping to come up with a solution and is still accepting applications. About 10 lifeguards are needed to re-open the wading pools and several people have applied. London is also in need of lifeguards at other city pools.
“We are going to do our due diligence with these and determine if we are able to hire them. If we can, and pending training, we will open the facilities that are closed,” Loubert says.
The city says it chose the six pools that are currently closed, in an effort to impact the fewest people.
