City seeks volunteer lifeguards to keep pools open

CEDAR RAPIDS - On a hot July afternoon, some of the larger city pools can be filled close to capacity. The grounds of the Noelridge Aquatic Center alone can hold up to 2,000 people.

That's a lot to keep a trained eye on.

“We operate with 112 lifeguards during the summer,” said Sven Leff, recreation superintendent with the city of Cedar Rapids. “Our large pools, like Noelridge, run off 13 (lifeguards) on a shift or Cherry Hill with 16 (lifeguards) on a shift. That's where most people congregate and where most of our lifeguard shifts are.”

But in the final weeks leading up to the end of the season, Leff said, his department will encounter a major staffing problem for the five outdoor public pools.

“In August, a majority of the staff will go back to college or get involved in high school athletics,” he said. “We have very few remaining for most of our pool hours.”

Out of the 112 lifeguard positions, Leff said “about 40” lifeguards will be available for the last weeks until Labor Day. To keep more pools open, administrators are looking to recruit volunteers willing to complete the certification training and sit in the chair.

A handful of lifeguards, some who have gone decades since twirling a whistle and reminding kids to walk and not run, are answering the call - for no pay.

“We are representing the city and sitting in the chair, and we'll have to know what we're doing,” said Nick Gearhart, who said he was last a certified lifeguard in 1974. “I've been a competitive swimmer all my life.”

Gearhart is part of a swimming group called the Milky Way Masters, and he said 12 to 14 of its 120 members are going to be trained.

“Once we're certified, it's a three-year certification,” Gearhart said of the lifesaving and first aid training. CPR training is tested each year, he said.

That three-year qualification should help when the city faces similar shortages in the future.

Leff said the volunteer lifeguards will help keep the pools with lower daily population counts, such as Bever, Ellis and Jones, open longer.

“There's not an age requirement, not an hours requirement, and if somebody wants to volunteer, we simply have a safety requirement,” he said.

Gearhart, who expects to start his volunteer shifts by August, said he is ready to help ease the burden on a tight city budget.

“If we can donate a week, two weeks, three weeks of labor at $10 to $11 an hour, that's huge,” he said.

Leff said people interested in being volunteer lifeguards can call his department at (319) 286-5739.