Wills Park Pool Closed For Season

Due to a shortage of certified life guards, the City of Alpharetta has closed the Wills Park Pool for the season.  The City had planned to open the pool for each of the next three weekends, extending the pool season from its traditional Labor Day closure.

“This was not a decision we came to easily or quickly”, said Morgan Rodgers, Director of Recreation, Parks & Cultural Services for the City of Alpharetta. “Before coming to this decision, we contacted surrounding cities and counties, private swim organizations, and even reached out to our Department of Public Safety seeking certified lifeguards, all to no avail."

According to Rodgers, a minimum of eight life guards must be on duty when the Wills Park Pool is in operation in order to provide the necessary supervision and safety for the public.  The City currently has only three certified life guards remaining on staff.

"We do have plans in place to be able to properly staff the pool during a couple of small events that were planned before the start of the season," said Rodgers.  "Unfortunately, we just do not have enough life guards to operate the pool for those last few weekends."

Each year the City hires a cadre of life guards to staff the pool during the season.  Nearly all of them are college and high school students; most of whom are no longer available when their school year begins.  At the start of the season this year enough life guards expected to be available for the final weekends in September, but their availability changed as they made sports teams and academic commitments changed.