Four reporters from the Morning Call joined forces to report on Here's Why Summer After Summer, Some Pools Are Closed. Apparently the paper needs to assign more reporters, because they all seemed to accept the city's sorry excuse. The article explains that the shortage is caused by factors such as teenagers wanting more comfortable indoor jobs. The article mentions that the city has a limited budget and pays $8.75 an hour. Although I do not have an advanced degree in finance, I bet that if the city would pay $10 or even $12 an hour, there would be a surplus of applicants. Furthermore, again even without the advanced degree, I know that the extra pay would be taxpayer beneficial, compared to closed and underutilized pools.
I'm amazed at both the city and the paper for giving and printing such disingenuous answers, summer after summer. There is little reason to believe that the city ever intended to open Irving Pool, which is on the books for conversion to a spray park.
Shown above is the former Fountain Park Pool which closed after years of excuses, as being reported now about the other pools.
$8.75 an hour seems preposterously low for a lifeguard wage in 2018, considering that you need a physically fit person with very specialized training on an important job. I seem to remember that Wildwater Kingdom offered probably 75% of that over a quarter century ago.
ReplyDeleteFully agree that a more competitive salary would bring more applicants, though even $10 seems a bit low for a fully qualified lifeguard.
More likely, the cost of liability insurance keeps these types of institutions from opening, which really is a shame since young people can't exactly start their own pool in the summer when its 95 degrees out.
One other point to consider:
ReplyDeleteAllentown recently banned swimming in creeks, supposedly because of several near-drownings in the Jordan Creek.
With the Jordan and Mack pools being closed on alternating days, where does City Hall think those greeted by a locked Jordan Pool will end up?
If public safety was the real reason behind the swimming in creeks ban, the failure to have all the pools open is the height of incompetence.
Maybe it's the fact that guards are getting physically and verbally assaulted for trying to enforce the pool rules. Parents are coming to the pool and expecting the guards to babysit their children. A few weeks ago a 2 year old had to be given CPR after almost drowning at Cedar. The parents did not even notice it was their child who was missing until thwy walked over to see who was getting CPR. Who goes to a pool and doesnt keep track of their 2 year old? Mant of the pool patrons are ignorant and disrespectful and people don't want to have to put up with them,certainly not for 9$ an hour
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with this assessment. Even though I believe that a higher wage would make a huge difference (and deservedly so for what the job requirements entail) I feel that the general, New Allentown "attitude" and lack of respect from both the parents and their children (who learn it from their parents) towards any type of authority is probably the number one reason why any qualified applicant would gladly accept a position elsewhere, even if it was for less money. Growing up, lifeguards were shown the same respect (and sometimes fear) by the populace as police, firefighters and teachers. Unfortunately, in the city anyway, none of those individuals are any longer shown the respect they deserve.
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ReplyDeleteMike, to be a lifeguard one needs certification and to get the certification one must go through the hoops to get it. Is it at all surprising that few young people in Allentown go through the process? It's my guess that those who do would rather not lifeguard at an Allentown pool where discipline would be hard to enforce and attempts to make people follow the rules would likely be met with the usual in your face, f*** you response.
Scott Armstrong
So let me get this straight - the current Parks Director:
ReplyDelete1) Can't get the weeds mowed along the creeks in city parks;
2) Can't hire a sufficient number of lifeguards to cover a DWINDLING number of pools in the city; AND
3) Because of their inability to hire a sufficient number of lifeguards, comes up with a plan keeps open, on a full-time basis, the pool serving the wealthiest area of the city; and that closes (on alternating days) the pools serving lower-income residents, many of whom are people of color.
Yet somehow this Parks Director isn't fired by our sleepy interim Mayor or called out by any of our rubber-stamping members of Council? You just can't make this up.
The lifeguards at the local amusement park get the same type of abuse from the people bussed there from NJ & NY. The difference is they have security on site to remove these obnoxious patrons while lifeguards in Allentow have to wait for police to arrive after they make a phone call.
ReplyDeleteDiving boards have been removed from virtually all public and community association pools throughout the US because of prohibitively excessive insurance rates. The crime rate & other factors probably hinder the opening of some pools in certain cities.
ReplyDeleteThe wage for life guards is probably not the true determinate factor for Allentown, as the YMCA and other organizations offer certification training at a nominal cost, and the wage still beats fast food and mall retail for older teenagers who could serve as life guards.
When I was a kid creeks like in Little Lehigh Parkway had kids swimming in them without supervision. They were not deep, and other kids playing around in the water could always help if someone had a cramp or someone felt they were in trouble. Deploying police to check on kids playing in creeks is just lazy & worthless law enforcement. That ranks right up there with signs saying "Don't Have Fun."
In the mid 70's Allentown assigned police officers to Fountain Pool.Don't know when this practice ended
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