JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Sunday marked the second day that the city of Jacksonville’s pools were open for the summer.
Most of the city pools are open, but some remain closed due to a lifeguard shortage.
News4Jax found that a number of pools listed on the city’s website were not on a list of pools set to open. The pools that appear to not have lifeguard staff to open up include:
- Carvill Pool in Northwest Jacksonville
- Ed White High School Pool
- Englewood High School Pool
- Eugene Butler Middle School Pool
- Highlands Middle School Pool
- Mallison Pool on Lenox Avenue
- Wolfson High School Pool
The city has been on a major campaign to recruit lifeguards for months.
“You have to be a least 15. We accept all the way up to teachers, and they’ll have to go through our training class, which is five days long. And we also offer hybrid classes that are only two days long,” Kenzie Radloff, with the city’s Aquatics Office, said in April on “The Morning Show.”
News4Jax also discovered the Pine Forest Pool, which was supposed to open this weekend, was closed Sunday because of no chlorine.
A chlorine shortage has also been an issue for some pool owners this year. According to experts, there has been a shortage of chlorine because of a fire at a chemical plant in Louisiana that happened in August.
Jacksonville resident Bryan Cervantes was enjoying the pool at Adolph Wurn Park in the Sans Souci neighborhood on Sunday. He said he spends most of his time at the pool now that he’s off school for the summer.
“I’m excited,” he said. “I like coming to the pool a lot, yeah. It’s super fun.”
City pools opened for the season on Saturday and will remain open through Labor Day. They are open at full capacity, and masks are encouraged but not required.