Certified lifeguards needed for North Side pool

YOUNGSTOWN

The Northside Swimming Pool may not open this year as the city struggles to hire certified lifeguards.

The Youngstown Park and Recreation Department plans to open the pool on Belmont Avenue on June 12, but Mayor John A. McNally said the city has only received one application from a certified lifeguard.

“It’s a pretty simple equation,” McNally said. “If we don’t find a good seven to eight lifeguards, the pool will not be open this summer.”

Those lifeguards would need to be in place by June 11 to allow the pool to open.

Robert Burke, the city’s park and recreation director, has been “beating the bushes” recently to find lifeguards interested in working at the pool, McNally said.

The pool closed a few times last year because there weren’t enough lifeguards, Burke said, so he started reaching out early to the YMCA and the Jewish Community Center to recruit applicants from their lifesaving classes.

“The past couple years it’s been difficult,” McNally said. “We’ve been able to make it work, but this summer, nothing so far.”

Read more about the situation and how you can become involved in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.