March 31, 2023
By: Dwayne Page
The City of Smithville Swimming Pool will not open this summer due to the lack of available lifeguards.
Pool Manager Jeania Cawthorn made the announcement this morning (Friday).
“We can’t open the pool without lifeguards and we just couldn’t get enough lifeguards signed up for this year,” said Cawthorn.
“Today (Friday) was my deadline to get everything up and running because normally our pool would have already been filled with water and chemicals and repairs made. We just didn’t have enough lifeguards,” she said.
In addition to the physical work in preparing the pool for the swimming season, Cawthorn said months of planning is required in recruiting lifeguards.
“I have been making the announcement (need for lifeguards) since January in order to get people signed up for classes. There has been one class per month and they (lifeguards) have to take them (classes) out of town because we don’t staff a full-time instructor and there are only a few instructors in Middle Tennessee so we have to start advertising for those classes in January,” said Cawthorn.
“I put out the plea early and begged for people and the local media and social media shared it for me but I had only two lifeguards to sign up and they took the course and passed. We now have three potential lifeguards who were going to take the class in April but even if they go forward to take the class there are still simply not going to be enough. We use about 8 lifeguards a day because our days are long. We always get there before the public does, clean the pool from debris that has fallen overnight, check the chemicals, and then we stay afterwards and clean up the mess that has been left behind during the day so our hours are long. Out of those 8 lifeguards a day, some of them have other jobs and prior commitments so it takes 20-25 lifeguards to run the pool and do it successfully. Last year we had this problem but we managed to open for 3-4 days a week but even then we struggled to keep it open,” said Cawthorn.
“I want to thank all the lifeguards and parents who helped last year and those who were willing to help this year,” she said.