JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – As of Tuesday, nearly half of Jacksonville’s public pools were closed which has left many residents asking why.
The city told News4JAX the issue has to do with ongoing repairs and staffing shortages for lifeguard positions.
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The ongoing issues have led to 16 out of the 34 city pools being closed as summer begins, like the pool in Sunny Acres Park in Arlington that neighbors said has been shuttered for years.
According to the City of Jacksonville, 18 pools were open to the public at the start of the week.
MORE: Nearly half of Jacksonville’s community pools are currently closed
On Wednesday, when Jacksonville Mayor-Elect Donna Deegan introduced her new leadership team, she was asked about the issue and indicated that getting the pools back open would be a priority for her when she takes over as mayor on July 1.
“I’m not going to throw anybody under the bus for something I don’t know much about. I heard about this yesterday just like you did,” Deegan said. “But I will say that I think it’s an important thing for our community to have those swimming pools available. It’s not a ton of money and I’m not certain what has happened that has kept those things from being open. I understand that it’s a maintenance situation. We certainly need to advertise positions if we have positions for lifeguards, but those are the sorts of things that I think we need to make available to the public. Those are the things that frustrate people, when they see that you can’t open public swimming pools but you can look at doing all these other things. That seems to be a relatively small thing to be able to do for people in this community in the summer.”
Some Jacksonville residents have pointed out that the pools are closed at the same time the city is exploring giving up to $1 billion in taxpayer dollars to help rennovate the Jacksonville Jaguars stadium and build a new sports entertainment district nearby.
A city spokesperson told News4JAX on Monday that nearly a third of city pool lifeguard positions were open, with 114 vacancies.
On Tuesday, the city posted a new call out for new pool lifeguards on its website. The pay starts at $14 per hour.
Pools closed for maintenance or staffing issues in Jacksonville as of Tuesday:
R= Repair/Maintenance
S=Staffing
- Baldwin Middle/High School: R
- Robert Kennedy Pool: R
- San Souci Pool (Adolph Wurn Park): R
- Terry Parker High School: R
- Carvill Park Pool: S
- Charles Clark Pool: R/S
- Ed White High School: R/S
- Emmett Reed Pool: R
- Englewood High School: R/S
- Eugene Butler Pool: S
- Golfair Park Pool (C.T. Brown): R/S
- Highlands Middle School: R/S
- Mallison Park Pool: R/S
- Paxon High School: R/S
- Raines High School: R/S
- Sunny Acres Pool: Overall Park renovation project to create a destination location for citizens with disabilities, R/S