Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Almost in time for the start of summer, the City of Buffalo announced that three of their outdoor public pools are set to open on July 1st. The community can enjoy the pools through Labor Day, weather permitting.
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Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown was happy to announce that the city has hired 73 lifeguards for the season, a real "success story" he described as Buffalo's pools were closed for the past three summers due to shortages of lifeguards.
"Like many municipalities across the country, we were not able to open pools in the city because of the lifeguard shortage created by the pandemic for several years, but that will not be the case this year," said the mayor.
Two indoor pools in Buffalo are already available for the public. The Connors, Kait, Harrity and Memorial Pool on Abbott Road is open for the community 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The Lovejoy Pool have the same hours, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. but open on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The city is actively looking to recruit more lifeguards so that they may open more outdoor pools for the summer season.
"We do have 13 additional folks going through the civil service process right now, that we're hoping will become new hires shortly. We are still posting and hiring additional lifeguards. If there are folks that would like to be lifeguards for City of Buffalo pools, we are still hiring. As we process additional guards, we will consider opening other locations or changing hours for some of the pools that are open to maximize the public's assets access to to swimming this summer," said Andy Raab, Buffalo's Deputy Parks Commissioner.
The three outdoor pools will be open everyday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., except for one day of the week for cleaning, those pools are the Centennial, Riverside, and Kensington.
The Kensington Pool is still undergoing a $2 million dollar renovation, Rabb and Mayor Brown both emphasized that the pool will be ready in time for July.
"You can see that there's still a little bit of work left to do here at Kensington Pool, but this project replaced the entire filtration system, the drainage, and really caulked and sealed the pool surface. There's [also] some improvements to the bathroom interior. We fully expect that this pool will be operational next week," said Raab.