The Athens swimming pool will remain closed to the general public for the remainder of the summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a lack of lifeguards.

Athens Parks and Recreation director Bert Bradford said the city usually has eight to 10 lifeguards on staff during the summer, but the novel coronavirus pandemic forced the department to lay off several part-time employees.

“We have fewer lifeguards than we originally started out with, and that’s going to make it impossible to do anything differently with the pool than what we’re doing,” Bradford said. “Just by law, you have to have lifeguards there, and there’s no way for us to schedule them when we hardly have any to pull from. There’s just not enough lifeguards to go around.”

The city announced in late May it would open some of its recreational facilities June 1, but would only open the pool for Athens Swim Team practices and private parties. The city said it would reevaluate the situation July 1, but Bradford said the best decision would be to keep the status quo.

“We were worried about this,” Bradford said. “The virus has gone on for so long, that we kind of expected to make this decision. We will still be open for the swim team and for private parties, but it is closed for the rest of the summer to the general public.”

Bradford said the parks and rec department is in the process of hiring back part-time employees, but with no lifeguard certifications being done right now, there is no way people could get certified to become lifeguards for the summer.

Those who would like to schedule a party at the city pool should contact the Athens Parks and Recreation Department at 256-233-8740.

“We try to limit the numbers (at a private party) in order to abide by the social distancing,” Bradford said. “But that has not been an issue so far. We will take them on a case-by-case basis.”

While the pool has been closed for the rest of the summer, Bradford is cautiously preparing for the fall youth sports season by hiring about 50 part-time employees to staff the Sportsplex on nights there are games.

“We’re in the process of hiring those back, basically with our fingers crossed that we can have sports as close to normal as possible in the fall,” Bradford said. “It seems like there’s been a resurgence in what’s happening, so we’re paying close attention to that every day.”