City Worries About Potential Lifeguard Shortage

The city's beaches opened yesterday, but the real question is whether there are enough lifeguards. The Parks Department had an aggressive campaign to get more lifeguard recruits this year, but WABC 7 says not enough people are qualified enough to patrol the 14 miles of NYC beachers (not to mention pools). The Parks department has hired almost 500 of the 1000 lifeguards needed, so the agency is hoping 600 more can be hired by June. In years past, we've noticed there are a lot of lifeguards from former Eastern bloc countries - and in a press conference, a parks official said that there are some lifeguards coming as far as Serbia this year!

Lifeguards are paid $10.71 an hour; for more information, go here.