Laconia lifeguard stands remain empty

LACONIA — The job market has been extremely tight and it has been difficult to hire lifeguards, but this year has been ridiculous, says city Parks and Recreation Director Amy Lovisek.

She had 13 lifeguard positions open this summer at $11 an hour, and didn’t get one applicant.

“None, zero,” she said.

“All the beaches have signs posted on the back of the lifeguard chairs that the people are swimming at their own risk.”

The city beaches are Bartlett, Bond, Opechee Point, Opechee Cove and Weirs.

Lovisek said enforcement of beach rules are difficult without lifeguards.

“Now the police have to be involved because we don’t have a lifeguard watching and taking care of things,” she said.

“Also, we’d love to have a lifeguard there for safety reasons.”

She said that so far this season there haven’t been any emergencies where lack of a lifeguard proved to be a problem.

Lovisek said that in addition to offering decent pay, the city now reimburses costs for the training course lifeguards need to take to become certified.

She advertised the position in the newspaper, posted it on websites and in schools, went to job fairs and even contacted swim teams.

Some young people may be dissuaded by the fact they can’t look at their phone while they are working, she said.

“But honestly they can do other jobs that pay the same or more and not have the same responsibility,” she said. “Also, some people just like to have the summer off.”

For some reason, other towns in the region have been able to fill some or all of their positions, she said.

Herb Greene, at Gilford Parks and Recreation, said he hired 15 lifeguards and a beach manager this year.

“We’ve been short-staffed in previous years, but this year we were lucky to retain employees,” he said.

His department also pays $11 an hour.