Cordova's pool loses its only full-time lifeguard Friday, with little money for temps

Cordova's only full-time pool lifeguard leaves Friday, and another lifeguard leaves in January, Parks and Recreation Director Samantha Hagerthy-Schneider told the city's Parks and Recreation Commission on Tuesday.

"It's looking like November and December are going to be really limited, even more than they have been for staffing," she said of the Bob Korn Memorial Swimming Pool.

The pool reopened in September after a 16-month closure but has had boiler trouble since. A failed fuel pump recently shut it for about three days, and the boiler stopped again Monday, Hagerthy-Schneider said.

The pool has $25,000 this year for temporary staff, she said. Running October's schedule for a full year would take about $70,000. The pool once had two full-time lifeguards and a part-time lifeguard. Temporary workers cost less because they aren't offered health insurance, but each can work only about 1,020 hours, or roughly six months, a year.

Even October's schedule meant limiting swim team practices and recreational swims, Hagerthy-Schneider said. The Bidarki Recreation Center, which shares many of the same temporary workers, needs about $60,000 and got $35,000. It will close at 7 pm on weekdays so more of them can cover the pool.

"$25,000 for next year is going to get us three months of what October looked like and then nothing the rest of the year," commission member Kelsey Hayden said, though she acknowledged the money would be spread across the year. Hagerthy-Schneider said the 2027 budget is looking similar to this year's, and 2028 "might look a little bit better." The City Council has backed carrying about $1 million into 2027, when the city's finance director expects fish tax to be "unprecedentedly low."

A commission member asked whether the city's rule requiring two lifeguards could bend for the swim teams. Only if the teams bring their own volunteer lifeguards, Hagerthy-Schneider said, citing Red Cross training, CDC guidance and insurance. The pool is a Red Cross training facility, and the Red Cross could pull its swim lesson certification if something went wrong and the city hadn't followed the rules, she said.

"I'm not cutting corners on safety for us," she said. She described being on deck alone for hours at a time, "wondering how I'm going to get this kid out of the pool, how I'm going to get this person out of the pool by myself if something happens."

Some commission members pushed back, saying the pool had run a different way for decades. "The risk of not having the program is also significant because you're not strengthening swimmers," one said.

"I do not want kids to stop swimming," Hagerthy-Schneider said. She plans to renew her lifeguard instructor certification in Juneau next month and then teach a lifeguarding course for a new full-time hire and anyone else who wants to become a lifeguard, including swim team volunteers.

Money is also at the center of a debate over nonprofits. The city's 2026 fee schedule lets verified nonprofits rent city facilities, including the pool, at 25% of the standard rate, but that charge is on hold while the council reevaluates it. Hagerthy-Schneider has put nonprofits' typical use of city facilities and parks at about $45,000 a year.

She said Tuesday that some nonprofits have been charged and others haven't. "It's picking and choosing, and I'm going to use the words, I don't think it's fair," she said. Paying swimmers also lose public pool time to nonprofit groups that don't pay, she said.

Hayden suggested following the Cordova Center's policy, which she said gives nonprofits a 15% discount and tribal groups 10%, with separate agreements for groups like Little League and the Iceworm swim team. "When it comes to the pool, that is truly like the heart of Cordova," she said, adding that she'd pay a higher property tax "if it means that there's kids in the pool all the time."

The commission, which is advisory, took no vote. The council takes up nonprofit charges at a work session this week, and the 2027 fee schedule goes to the council by December.