Pittsburgh struggles to staff its pools, can't open all of them

Jun. 9—With only eight of the city's 18 pools set to open next week, Pittsburgh City Council members Wednesday are wondering what they can do to get more pools open as coronavirus restrictions are eased and people try to enjoy summer.

"The support, the concern, is appreciated," Pittsburgh Parks and Recreation Director Ross Chapman told council members during a committee meeting. "If we could open up 18 (pools), we would open up 18 (pools)."

Pittsburgh, Allegheny County looking for pool lifeguards

Council is considering making about $380,000 more money available to the department to raise wages to attract more people to apply for lifeguard positions and others needed to operate the city's pool system.

But money isn't necessarily the problem, Chapman told council.

"This is a national trend," Chapman said of struggling to fill positions like lifeguards and other jobs that are seasonal or pay under $15 per hour.

Allegheny County parks and recreation officials are dealing with the same challenge.

The county increased its lifeguard salaries from $11 per hour to $14 per hour and finding people remains tough, Andy Grobe, the assistant deputy director of the county's parks and recreation department, said.

There's money in the city's parks and recreations budget to increase the wages the city pays to seasonal employees like lifeguards, but there's a general lack of interest in the positions, Chapman said. He attributed it to a multitude of reasons, including needing time off for family vacations and lack of college students remaining in the city over the summer.

Typically, 40 or 50 experienced lifeguards return each year to work for the city. But pools were closed in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. This year, the city has only been able to hire about 70 of the about 200 lifeguards it needs to open up all of the pools in the city, Chapman said.

It's almost enough for the 80 lifeguards the city needs to open eight pools next week.

Training a new lifeguard takes about four weeks, he said.

Council members Deb Gross and Theresa Kail-Smith have teamed up to find ways to entice more people to apply for the jobs so the city can open up more pools.

Gross is working on legislation that would transfer about $380,000 from the public works budget to parks and recreation to increase pay rates. No one opposed the move, although Councilman Ricky Burgess said it should be part of a larger undertaking to rework the 2021 budget.

But it is a nuanced issue that involves more than pay rates, which for lifeguards range from $11.09 to $15.76 per hour, Chapman said.

Some of the city's pools are funded using Regional Asset District money, others use trust funds and some are included in the about $3.8 million parks and recreation budget, Chapman said.

The city has money to increase wages for lifeguards and other staffers, but applying those increases fairly will involved more than his department, Chapman said.

The wages the city pays to lifeguards is comparable to those other pools pay, he said.

The problem is getting enough people to apply for the jobs, he said.

"We've done everything we can," Chapman said.

But applicants have been down. To apply for a job as a lifeguard, click here.

"It's not a money problem, it's a people problem," Councilman R. Daniel Lavelle said. "He has a staffing problem."

Gross and Kail-Smith are planning a meeting with Chapman and others to come up with ways the city can attract more workers and if pay rate increases or bonuses should be a part of it.

Opening more pools is needed to give the city's youth something positive to do, Kail-Smith said, calling it a "basic service" the city needs to provide.

"What can we do to push this issue a little further?" Kail-Smith said.

Tom Davidson is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tom at 724-226-4715, tdavidson@triblive.com or via Twitter .