Kalispell Public Pool Opens with Limited Hours Due to Lifeguard Shortage

Those looking to take a dip at the Woodland Park pool this summer must adhere to tighter open swim hours due to a scarcity of seasonal lifeguards.

The shortage has affected pools around the nation for years, exacerbated in 2020 by a variety of factors ranging from Covid’s role in limiting opportunities to train or recertify, which must be done every two years, to a low unemployment rate that afforded young people a range of other job opportunities.

When the national shortage began affecting operations at Kalispell’s public pool a few years ago, the city’s parks and recreation department opted to cover the cost of lifeguard certification and recertification courses in addition to paying candidates to take the courses. The department also launched a more aggressive outreach and recruitment campaign, advertising in February for summer staff while spreading the word at local high schools, regional pools, the local swim club, and on social media.

Still, the staffing deficit at Woodland Water Park is noticeable this year. The pool opened last Friday with half of the lifeguards the municipal department would normally hire, which Parks and Recreation Superintendent Stephanie Brown attributed to the failures of several candidates to pass training, or who signed up for the training and failed to show.

“This is likely due to so many not passing the lifeguard courses we offered,” Brown said. “I’d add our lifeguards are also our swim instructors, so having them teach lessons affects open swim hours.”

Rather than limit lessons, which are more difficult to reschedule, Brown said they have opted to restrict open swim hours, which are easier to reinstate should the empty positions fill up.

Other pools in the area have also struggled to maintain a full staff and schedule over the past few years. This summer, the Pinewood Aquatic Center in Columbia Falls is staffed with a full lifeguard crew after seeing its ranks dwindle in previous years, City Manager Eric Hanks said.

“This year we have 12 lifeguards, four more than last year,” Hanks said. “Last year we had more challenges.”

One of those challenges has been finding training. The Columbia Falls public pool outsources certification for its lifeguards through The Wave in Whitefish, a private, indoor pool with a more robust program that has both lifeguards and swim instructors on the payroll.

Because it is open year-round, summer isn’t necessarily The Wave’s busiest time, said Aquatics Manager Tiffany Gould, who noted the swell of patrons during rainy days and holiday breaks. Gould still hires lifeguards during the spring, however, a tactic she’s developed in hopes that staff will stay on once the summer season passes.

“I try to surge it up, mainly because that’s when people think about getting lifeguards certified, is in the spring and in the summer,” Gould said. “Then I try to hang on to them.”

Like its municipal counterparts, The Wave struggled to hire lifeguard staff for its pool after 2020, with a scarcity of high-school and college-aged candidates, a demographic that has historically served as a reliable fountainhead for lifeguard posts. This is the first year Gould has been able to employ lifeguards seven days a week all summer since 2020, she said. Only in the last two years has she been able to onboard more high school students as lifeguards, which presents its own staffing challenges as those young employees are busier with extracurricular activities that limit their availability to work, requiring Gould to scale up to offset the scheduling shortcomings.

“Our biggest thing is, yes, we have high schoolers right now,” said Gould. “But they’re busy high schoolers … We have to have more lifeguards because of their restricted schedule.”

Brown said the Woodland Park pool staff has seen a similar shift in the younger lifeguards they’ve hired, requiring them to add more staff to supplement.

“A lot of lifeguards are athletes and have sports they’re training in for fall,” Brown said. “They might be committed to a swim team, but also that’s an ideal candidate, right? Anybody that’s active and really likes being in the water and helping keep people safe.”

According to the American Lifeguard Association, the other factor affecting lifeguard shortages is that many view lifeguarding as a summer job for teenagers, not as a career.

Certified as a lifeguard for nearly a decade, Rose Powell has worked at several pools across the U.S., including the pool at Logan Health Medical Fitness Center in Kalispell this past winter. Though she has moved on from lifeguarding this summer to be a wildland firefighter, she lists skills — independent decision making, CPR and first aid, for example — she learned in the role that have given her an advantage when applying for other jobs.

“The whole job is identifying a problem that is not always obvious,” she said. “You have to independently say, ‘I’m going to jump in and help them,’ without asking others around you to confirm what you’re seeing. Those skills are very important for every job you’re going to have, and it’s just a lot of fun once you get into a pool community.”

To prepare for the summer season, the Kalispell Parks and Recreation department installed a new lap pool lining, revamped the concession stand menu, and repainted much of the building’s exterior. They also hired a dedicated aquatics manager for the first time in March, Brown said. The employee will help manage the pool year-round and start training lifeguards next year so that the city does not have to outsource their certification courses.

“Our staff have worked so hard to get this pool where it is this summer,” Brown said. “We want the pool open more than anything. As soon as we’re able to open it, we will.”

For up-to-date swim hours and information on open lifeguard positions at Woodland Water Park visit the website here.

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