With plenty of New Yorkers hitting the beach and pools this weekend for the unofficial start to summer, city officials are still contesting with a shortage of lifeguards needed to meet its summer needs.
Mayor Eric Adams on Friday announced an easing of testing requirements needed to perform the lifeguard role in hopes of filling that shortage.
"These rules have restricted lifeguards hiring and prevented the city from doing everything we feel that is necessary to hire more lifeguards," Adams said Friday.
The mayor's Memorial Day weekend announcement of a new rule change might allow the city to hire more lifeguards assigned to work in public pools, which are scheduled to open on June 27.
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A previous job test required all lifeguard recruits to complete a 300-yard swim. for those recruits who will only be in charge of monitoring kiddie pools -- ones no deeper than five feet -- the swim will not be timed.
"It just didn't make sense for these small kiddie pools. It doesn't mean a person is not a great swimmer and can't respond where need be," the mayor explained.
This rule change stems from an arbitration panel that issued an award in the city's ongoing negotiations with the union representing city lifeguards. Last year, the city's parks department struggled to fill vacant lifeguard posts, forcing the city to cut back on pool hours.
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"They still need to go to rigorous training, be able to swim those 300 yards, but it just won't be timed. So it will have a definite impact on our shallow water pools," Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue added at the mayor's briefing.
The commissioner said more recruits are taking part in the department's 16-week training program. There's roughly 560 new lifeguards this summer, and more than 300 recruits currently in training.
"We're not in any way bringing down how you must be qualified to save lives, if anything we're strengthening them," Adams added.
