Pittsburgh’s pools aren’t set to open until June 16, but the city’s parks department is already thinking ahead to the swimming season.
At a press gathering on Wednesday, city officials stressed the importance of recruiting enough lifeguards to meet their goal of opening all 18 of Pittsburgh’s pools. CitiParks say they need to do final maintenance checks around May to be certain all the pools can operate, but in the meantime, leadership is pushing to recruit staff.
“I know there's a lot of you who want to ask if your neighborhood pool is going to be open this year,” said Mayor Ed Gainey, standing in front of the Ream Swimming Pool in Mt. Washington, which was built in 1951 but closed last year for repairs.
“We are working diligently to open every pool we can,” Gainey said. “But part of making that happen is getting lifeguards. We need lifeguards. The more lifeguards we have, the more pools we can open.”
Officials noted that COVID and the busy schedules of young people have posed challenges to lifeguard recruitment, both in the city and nationwide. Even so, the city has been able to increase the roster of available pools in recent years: In 2023 and 2024, the city opened 15 pools, after having 12 open in 2022 and just 8 in 2021.
The city fielded around 150 lifeguards last year. Three pools were undergoing repairs but should be ready for this summer, provided no more issues are found that need to be repaired.
“There's certain things, things like pool liners, you really don't know until the season's warm enough where you can get in there and start going through pool by pool and seeing what's going on,” CitiParks Director Kathryn Vargas said. “Usually it's around May [that] we start to know what our numbers are looking like and we know what our pool health looks like. We'll be able to make those announcements at that time.”
This year, according to Vargas, beginner lifeguards will start at a rate of $17.48, while more experienced lifeguards have the chance to make more. That’s an increase from last year’s beginning rate of $16.97. The city pays for lifeguard certification and training.
Lifeguards of various ages and experience levels are important to keeping the pools going, noted city aquatics manager Shelley Terlecki.
“We've had a lot of trouble rebuilding our staff and having more senior lifeguards,” she said. “Especially as a first year guard being 15, 16 years old, coming to a facility, you have to get your footing, you have to get comfortable doing your job and you want other people that are there to train you and be role models.”
She said the city has benefited from people other than high schoolers and college students coming back to help out. Part-time and full-time lifeguard positions are both available.
“We really appreciate having more seasoned individuals recruited as well, because they often are in positions where they can be those assistant head guards [and] head guards, and that's the kind of leadership that is helpful at a pool,” Vargas said.
Those interested in becoming lifeguards can register online on the CitiParks website. The formal application will be going up later this week. Prospective lifeguards must be at least 15 years old and live within the city of Pittsburgh.
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