As summer approaches, New York City beaches will be opening starting today, May 25th. In order to address the shortage of lifeguards, Mayor Adams announced on the 24th that the qualification standards will be relaxed to recruit more lifeguards.
The city government has decided to modify the qualification standards for lifeguards at shallow children’s pools (with water depths of five feet or less). Trainee lifeguards are no longer required to complete a 300-yard swim within a specific time frame, but they must undergo 16 weeks of training. Starting next year, there will be further relaxations in the vision standards, adopting a graded vision system. Lifeguards will be eligible if their uncorrected vision in each eye is 20/70 or better, and corrected vision for one eye is 20/30 and the other eye is 20/40.
The 14-mile stretch of beaches in New York City opens today. The Parks Department stated this week that the current number of lifeguards is only slightly above one-third of the required amount. However, due to an agreement reached between the city government and the union to increase wages and bonuses, there are now over 550 trainee lifeguards, significantly more than the 375 trained during the same period last year.
New York City’s pools will open later than the beaches, starting on June 27th. The operating hours for both pools and beaches will be from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily, with closure scheduled for September 8th.