Reasons Behind Lengthening Lines Outside El Paso Public Pools
There seems to be some confusion over the reason lines of people are being left outside at many of the City of El Paso’s public pools this summer.
On Monday Parks and Recreation officials told ABC-7 the lines are being caused by a capacity problem. But an internal email forwarded to ABC-7 from City Hall Wednesday morning suggests it’s a lifeguard shortage.
And now Parks and Rec officials say it’s both.
On Monday, Parks and Rec Aquatics Manager Wright Stanton told ABC-7 this when asked if he had more lifeguards, could he put more people in the pool?
“No, I couldn’t put more people in the pool,” Stanton said, “because if we get too many people in the pool then it becomes a safety hazard.”
Stanton went on to say that the only fix for long lines outside of city pools would be to build more pools. But on Wednesday, a source forwarded ABC-7 this internal email from City Hall, written by City Chief Financial Officer Carmen Arrieta-Candelaria:
“If anyone knows of any lifeguards that would like to work for the city’s pools, please have them apply … many of our pools cannot be opened up entirely because we don’t have enough lifeguards.”
So is it a capacity problem or a lifeguard shortage?
“The issue with our public pools during recreation swim time is multi-fold,” explained Nanette Smejkal, Director of the El Paso Parks and Recreation Department. “You wouldn’t want the pool itself to be shoulder to shoulder with swimmers because that wouldn’t be a safe situation.”
She also admitted they don’t always open up the entire facility, due to a lack of lifeguards.
“At this point, we are short about 10 lifeguards,” Smejkal said. “We can always use more applicants for our lifeguarding positions and we would welcome that. And in fact, it would help in some of the situations if we had more guards on staff we would have more flexibility.”
Those who would like to check to see if there’s room in the pool or help out by becoming a lifeguard at one of the 15 city public pools, Call 544-3556.
