CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The Chicago Park District has announced with a plan to open roughly half of its pools on July 5.
The park district announced it would be moving some lifeguards from the lakefront to neighborhood pools and plans to have 37 pools open on July 5th.
In a press release, park district officials wrote that the 37 pools will include 15 indoor and 22 outdoor pools. That means roughly half of the city’s public pools will be open.
The city said it has only 55 percent of the qualified lifeguards it needs to open more pools.
Chicago Park District General Superintendent Rosa Escareno said a national lifeguard shortage has impacted the district’s ability to hire lifeguards.
At a recent public hearing, though, Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th) suggested the shortage is a result of the sexual assault and harassment scandal at the park district.
“We ain’t (sic) got a labor problem,” Taylor said. “We got ‘how we treat people’ problems.”
Because lifeguards are being shuffled, some lesser-used areas of the lakefront will be off-limits to swimming, including portions of North Avenue Beach and Calumet Beach.
The park district will host a lifeguard training session later this week.
Follow this link for the full list of which Chicago Park District pools will open July 5.
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