New York State Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation dealing with lifeguard shortage
May 26—WATERTOWN — The New York State Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation is reporting a shortage of candidates to fill lifeguard positions for the 2022 season.
Peyton Taylor, regional director for the department, said 22 vacancies still need to be filled for the upcoming season.
"Our beaches do not open for swimming here in the Thousand Islands region until the third weekend in June," she said. "So, we still got a couple of weeks to get people up and running, but we're having a little trouble finding candidates that want to do it."
There are 66 lifeguard positions in the region, which is defined as Jefferson, Lewis, St. Lawrence, Franklin and Clinton counties, as well as three parks on Lake Champlain.
Ms. Taylor said she has seen staff shortages in other jobs throughout the state such as maintenance or toll booth workers.
"The lifeguard work seems to be the one where we're experiencing the most extreme shortage right now," she said.
If state parks have a severe shortage, then Ms. Taylor said officials would have to consider not staffing lifeguards at the less popular swimming beaches.
"That's a worst case scenario," she said. "We're trying to avoid that."
The state will also consider moving crews of lifeguards from one place to another to allow for all beaches to be open part of the time.
Ms. Taylor said that she has never seen anything like this before.
"This is definitely a more significant shortage than what we're used to," she said.
In a normal year, most positions are already filled, Ms. Taylor said.
Salaries for first-year lifeguards begin at $14.95 an hour.
Those interested in becoming lifeguards need to make sure they have the necessary qualifications, fill out an application and email it to lifeguard@parks.ny.gov, and learn about the lifeguard qualifier.
For more information about how to apply and what is needed to become a lifeguard, visit http://wdt.me/Lifeguards.
