Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
The days of “Baywatch” and everyone wanting to be a lifeguard appear to be gone.
After the Warsaw Parks and Recreation Department announced Wednesday that there would be no lifeguards at Pike and Center Lake beaches this summer, the public had numerous comments and questions.
On Thursday, Parks Superintendent Larry Plummer provided further information on the lakes being “Swim at Your Own Risk” through a news release and a follow-up interview.
The release states, “Regarding lifeguards at Center and Pike Lakes, we have explored every avenue to recruit beach lifeguards for this season. We have posted job openings, contacted local schools, utilized social media and actively promoted the positions throughout the community. We currently offer a competitive wage of $17 per hour, provide and pay for all required training and certifications, and supply uniforms and other necessary equipment.
“Despite these efforts, we received only two applicants, both seeking limited part-time hours. As you know, industry safety standards require one lifeguard for every 25 swimmers in the water. With only two part-time lifeguards available, we cannot safely and responsibly provide staffed beach coverage,” the release states.
The Numbers
Plummer said they usually want to have 14 lifeguards so there’s a rotation and the lifeguards can get their 40 hours per week in and weekends and weekdays are covered.
“Typically, during the summer, the peak months, we have five guards per lake. That way they have a rotation for lunch,” Plummer said. “When we have five guards there, it’s 125 people in swimming areas. We have been close to that a few times. We have not exceeded that. When we looked at it, that’s what we feel is adequate to provide the safety when we have guards.”
He said they don’t just want to have one or two guards and then have 100 people in the lake “because that’s not safe, as opposed to putting up a ‘Swim at Your Own Risk’ sign where people are more aware of it. We’re not putting our lifeguards in jeopardy, we’re not putting the public in jeopardy.”
Asked about keeping lifeguards at one beach and having the other one as “Swim at Your Own Risk,” Plummer said they did a little bit of that last year.
“We were down to eight lifeguards last year, eight or nine we had on staff,” he said. “So, the peak days we tried to cover Center Lake the most, but there were days we didn’t have lifeguards at Pike Lake last year. A few days, to be frank with you. That was our main coverage so we tried to cover one lake to give them that option, when we had lifeguards, but most of the lifeguards - practically all of the lifeguards we had last year - were either going to an internship or graduated so they’re not coming back this year, so that created a whole new problem of trying to find new lifeguards and it just has not been successful. And if you don’t get the applications in, you can’t provide lifeguards.”
The Search
Plummer stated they start looking for lifeguards for the beaches for the summer as early as February.
“We put things out there every year. We try to do our summer (help), whether it’s maintenance, lifeguards or rec. staff. We start in February to look for seasonal help, and we’ve been fortunate enough on the rec. side and the maintenance side, we’ve had good applicants, and we’ve turned people away because the positions have been filled. But as far as lifeguards, as I mentioned, we went through the high school, we’ve went through every avenue we’ve known to hire lifeguards or to get lifeguards - with the increased pay, paying for the certifications, all of that to try to get them, and it’s just been an effort that we haven’t succeeded at,” Plummer said.
The news release states this is not a challenge unique to Warsaw. Communities throughout the region and across the country are facing similar shortages of qualified lifeguards.
“I’ve got calls from Syracuse. I talked to Columbia City, they struggle, even at their aquatic center they struggle to get lifeguards. Syracuse doesn’t have any. Many communities around. It’s been a thing through the National Park & Recreation Association that it’s an ongoing issue. But, lifeguards are just not readily available at places. They’re struggling to get them,” Plummer explained.
He couldn’t say why no one seems to want to be a lifeguard anymore.
“It takes a lot of attention to be a lifeguard, to focus on people in the water. I don’t know if the attention spans are gone nowadays or what. I’m not a psychologist, I can’t diagnose that, but something has changed. It used to be the prestigious job in the summer, to be a lifeguard 20 years ago, and now it seems to be the hardest thing to fill in the nation,” Plummer said.
He stated they’ll try to get lifeguards for next summer.
“We’ll try. We’ll absolutely try again next year, and try to get applicants. And if we can get enough of them, we’ll surely guard. We want the public to be as safe as they can, but if we are unsuccessful and can’t get the numbers, it will be ‘Swim at Your Own Risk’ and we’ll put the word out there,” he said.
The Care
The Warsaw Parks and Recreation will continue to take care of all of their facilities.
“We do have some workers around. If there’s some activity that we’re seeing that’s not safe or something, we’ll stop in and say that. But by no means are they lifeguards, we’re just public workers that might see something going on that we would stop it,” Plummer indicated.
Parks staff helped monitor the popular Wipe Out obstacle course on Wednesday because they didn’t want the event not to happen just because they didn’t have lifeguards, he said. “So, we put extra staff in there so we had extra bodies in the water in case somebody needed help or was struggling, but yet we also had the ability to call the EMS or fire department if something was happening.”
Asked about the potential for additional Warsaw Police Department patrols around the lakes with no lifeguards available, Plummer said they’re always advocating for that.
“We’d like a police presence in our parks all the time. I know they’re busy as well, but we have reached out and asked for extra patrol throughout the area, so, hopefully, that will help as well,” he said.
Everyone’s also talking about Indiana Senate Bill 1 and its affect on budgets. Plummer said he did not know if SB1 would be a factor on having lifeguards at the beaches in the future, if they’re able to find them.
“I don’t know if we all know what the effects of that are yet, but our job is to have great parks, perform them safely, provide safety for our patrons and I hope it doesn’t come to that, but it very well could, depending on the cuts, but we just hope it doesn’t. We’d like to have lifeguards if we can get them,” he stated.
The news release concludes by stating, “We encourage all visitors to be aware of these conditions and to take personal responsibility for their safety and the safety of those in their care while enjoying our beaches.”
