Ft. Madison among area pools looking to expand pool of safety; training scheduled
With summer only halfway done, some area pools including Ft. Madison's are finding themselves short of lifeguards.
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When you take your kids to the pool, you trust that the lifeguard will watch over them.
Turns out many communities don't have enough lifeguards to go around.
We checked with several pools here in the Tri-States.
Most of them told us they have enough lifeguards on duty, but Fort Madison's YMCA is feeling the effects of the shortage.
Is swimmer safety affected by the shortage here?
"Absolutely not. We always have a lifeguard on duty," Fort Madison YMCA Executive Director Jason Jones said. "The last few weeks of summer is a tricky time for us to schedule lifeguards, because college kids are heading back to school and high school kids aren't yet."
The time of the summer is one cause for the shortage, but another is the training.
It is very extensive and some just aren't up for the challenge.
"The testing is hard and that's why you see a guard shortage," Keokuk YMCA Aquatics Director Meg Swan said. "Instructors will fight you and pull you under. When people start to drown, they panic. In a real-life situation you're not going to find someone lying still unless they've already drowned."
Even when pools don't have a full staff, swimmer safety comes first.
That means some lifeguards work longer hours, but if no one can fill the chair, the pool stays closed.
The Fort Madison YMCA is holding a training course July 11 through Aug. 30.
The Hamilton Aquatic Center is holding a session starting July 16.
The course is almost 30 hours of work in the classroom and in the pool.
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