With the Jefferson Municipal Pool to open next week, there’s still one issue left to be addressed.

Parks and Recreation Director Denny Hammen tells Raccoon Valley Radio they are only half-staffed with lifeguards at this time. He explains how last year finding lifeguards to fill all of the shifts wasn’t a problem.

“We’re fortunate last year, probably because of the pandemic, that we had a lot of older lifeguards that returned, college students and so forth, that we didn’t have that problem last year. We started off the season last year with 19 lifeguards. This year, we have somewhere between 8 and 10 right now, which will allow us to open the pool. But we might have to limit the hours somewhat, unless we can get some more lifeguards to sign up.”

Hammen notes that there is a lifeguard training course that will be held this weekend and those individuals that are 15 and older can apply to be a lifeguard and take the class. The training covers CPR, AED and first aid.

The pool is anticipated to be open for the year starting June 4th. Contact the Greene County Community Center in Jefferson at 515-386-3412 to learn more about being a lifeguard.