Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - As the heat soars this week, community pools are already open for the season, and one community has plenty of lifeguards available for other towns, if needed.
Pools opened in Cheektowaga over the weekend, and the entire staff has been hired, says Executive Director of Youth & Recreation Krystle Fiend. "Our Town Park pool has a small waiting pool, and then a large swim area. Town park pool is very large," says Fiend, with as many as 700 people in the pool at one time. She says the smaller pools at Maryvale and Dingens locations have a wading pool, a deep end and a swimming area with capacity at more than 300 at both of those sites as well.
Fiend says Cheektowaga is lucky when it comes to lifeguards. "We have the best lifeguards anywhere coming into our pools. We are lucky enough that we have trainers on site who do trainings in January and then again in June to train our lifeguards, because we do keep on payroll 64 lifeguards. That's what we have to have running the pools during the summer," says Fiend.
In fact, Fiend says she's let other towns know about the lifeguard surplus. "We've actually trained more than we needed and shared with other towns after certifying them, because we really have had a lot of kids interested in becoming lifeguards," adds Fiend.
In Amherst, the Clearfield pool opened last week on Juneteenth and North Forest opened on Sunday. "It was rough this year with all of the rain that we had," says Amherst Youth & Recreation's Mary Diane Pouli. "We would get a pool emptied to be cleaned, and then the mother nature would fill it up again. But we are ready to go."
Pouli anticipates big crowds Monday and Tuesday, with temperatures expected to hit 90. "We do ask for people's patience, and we ask people just to observe other people's space, but we can handle big crowds, and we're looking forward to having everybody come on out," says Pouli.
When it comes to lifeguards, Pouli says things are ok. "It's rough for everybody, both municipalities and private organizations," says Pouli. "There are never enough lifeguards, but we have a great crew this year. It's about half returning guards, half new guards. They've been training for the past couple of weeks in order to be ready for our openings. But if there's anybody out there looking for a summer job, still, we can certainly use more." She doesn't know if the town has taken Cheektowaga up on its offer for bringing lifeguards from that town to Amherst.
A new spray park at Royal Park opens Monday from 8am to 8pm.