C’mon in, water’s fine – Pawtucket Fire & Police fill in as lifeguards

Pawtucket to Open Fairlawn Pool with Assistance of Public Safety Personnel  

Pawtucket will be opening the Fairlawn Veterans Memorial Park Pool this weekend thanks to the efforts of the Public Safety Department to provide additional lifeguards for the facility once again this year. The Department has agreed to help support the lifeguard staff that has been hired by the Parks and Recreation Department.  

Pawtucket, like many other communities, struggled to find those interested in the open lifeguard positions which are a necessity to open the pool and provide safe, aquatic recreation for residents. 

After months of solicitation, including reaching out to our youth in Pawtucket for applications for the open certified lifeguard positions, competitive wages, and incentives like the reimbursement of the certification, the efforts yielded a few lifeguards hired, but not enough to support the typical hours of the pool. Due to this, the Pawtucket Police and Fire Departments have once again offered to provide 30 volunteers to serve as lifeguards in order to open the pool. 

“Thanks to our Public Safety team and their willingness to provide that positive impact on the community, we will once again be able to provide suitable hours for the pool to be open,” said Mayor Donald R. Grebien. “We understand how much it means to our community to have this facility open, and with so few individuals who were interested in the position, we can’t provide adequate hours for the pool to be open during the summer without Police and Fire stepping up.” 

The Pawtucket pool will open Saturday, July 2^nd through Sunday, August 21^st. The hours are as follows: 

• Monday and Thursday: Noon to 5pm 
• Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday: 11am to 6pm 

Free lunches will be served daily Monday-Friday from 12:30pm to 1:30pm (excluding holidays). If there is the case of inclement weather, the pool will be closed. Updates will be posted on the Pawtucket Parks & Recreation Facebook page. 

More information will be made available at http://www.pawtucketri.com/parks-recreation-department.  

NOTE: Providence Pools open on July 5th.