Pittsburgh needs to recruit about 40 to 50 more lifeguards to open all of the city’s pools this summer, officials said.

Maria Montaño, a spokesperson for Mayor Ed Gainey, said the city is “recruiting hard” to get enough lifeguards to open all the city pools, but they’d need a total of about 155 lifeguards to do so.

“We’re moving forward to get as many of the pools open this summer as we possibly can,” Montaño said. “It’s always contingent on us having enough trained lifeguards to do that.”

Pay for new lifeguards starts at $16.48 an hour and can go up to $19.05 an hour depending on experience levels, she said.

Prospective lifeguards must be at least 16 years old by Sept. 5, vaccinated against covid-19 and city residents, she said.

The city provides training and certification classes, and people can apply online through the city’s website.

Applicants also must be willing to work at any of the city’s pools, according to the city’s site.

Montaño said it’s “too soon to say” how many pools the city would be able to open if there aren’t enough lifeguards to man all of them. She said city officials will discuss in the coming days which pools they would open if they can’t open them all, but said it was too early to discuss how those decisions would be made. The city has 12 pools.

“We really just need to get more recruits in the door,” she said. “It’s a great job in the summer for kids who are looking for work. We’ve had folks who have started their careers as lifeguards who are now part of our river rescue teams.”

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