Connecticut coastline facing lifeguard shortage

NEW LONDON, Conn. (WTNH) — The sound of water lapping the shoreline will soon be accompanied by the sounds of children playing on New London’s Green Harbor Beach, and there’s hope is there will be enough lifeguards to make sure everyone is safe.

It’s why the city is offering free training for perspective lifeguards. New London works closely with Waterford, which has a town pool and town beach, to provide the certification needed to be a lifeguard.

“We’re aggressive year-round,” said Tim Cieplik, the program coordinator for Waterford Recreation and Parks. “It almost helps that we have the pool because we retain… we retain some staff year-round.”

Waterford between 30 and 50 lifeguards each summer. Cieplik said the city is doing well because it has a large pool of applicants who return each year, but that doesn’t mean they are not still hoping to add more staff.

“I will say this there’s seldom a time when we’re not looking for lifeguards,” Cieplik said.

Ocean Beach Park in New London still needs 20 more lifeguards. It also provides the certification to help get more people interested in filling the lifeguard chairs, and is keeping a close eye on the beach.

The state also provides training for its lifeguards and looks to have staff in place early because that training can take weeks to complete.

In recent years, there were delayed openings for certain beaches, while others inland had to remain swim at your own risk. The hope is that can be avoided this year.

Tommy Podeszwa, who runs the aquatics and recreation programs for the New London Recreation Department, said it may be difficult to get people to want to climb up into this job is because it can be stressful. While the lifeguard may know that he or she is a good swimmer, not everyone their watching is.

“I’ve had people who are interested in doing it who have been on a swim team, even like really confident swimmers, that just don’t want to do it because they don’t want to put themselves in a situation where they have to make a rescue,” Podeszwa said.

He said that’s where the training can also help. It may give them the confidence they need to make this their summer job year after year.

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