By Dakota Antelman, Managing Editor
HUDSON – The Hudson Recreation Department had a newly renovated beach that community members were excited to visit.
As late as May, though, department leaders weren’t sure they would have enough lifeguards to staff that facility.
Hudson’s Centennial Beach, featuring a multimillion dollar, comprehensive renovation project, is now open. Lifeguards are on staff.
The broader lifeguard shortage that briefly prompted questions in reopening conversations still remains top of mind, though.
“That’s something we struggled with, to be honest, to start the season,” Recreation Director Steven Santos said in a recent interview with the Community Advocate.
Santos started the spring with just one member of his 2019 lifeguard team returning for the 2020 season. Normally relying on a cadre of local high school and college students to fill these positions, that shortfall was immediately noticeable.
As such, in meetings, Santos and others were discussing the viability of opening without lifeguards.
“We didn’t want to keep people from this newly renovated facility,” he said.
Hudson navigates lifeguard shortage
Having certified over a dozen new lifeguards, Santos said his team is now “in a good spot.”
That’s good news, he explained, especially in light of a state-wide surge in drownings.
In May, the state roughly doubled its number of documented drownings compared to 2019.
Locally, just last month, a Worcester police officer drowned trying to rescue a 14-year-old boy who also drowned. A matter of weeks later, in Shrewsbury, a 60-year old man also died after being pulled from a swimming pool.
Experts blame everything from record heat waves, to cancelled swim classes due to COVID-19 last summer for the surge.
In the meantime, state and local agencies are looking to respond by addressing the same persistent lifeguard shortage that manifested in Hudson this spring.
“One of the most important things [in avoiding drownings], I think, is for people to continue to swim in lifeguard occupied facilities,” Santos said.
Discussing the hiring shortage, Santos said there is no one clear driving factor. Rather, he blamed lingering anxieties about the coronavirus as well as the cancellation of annual beach programs last year due to the pandemic.
Past employees might have moved on to other jobs a year ago where they can make more money.
Certifications that allow an individual to work as a lifeguard might also have lapsed. Those only run for two years. So, those that renewed their certificates in 2019 only got one year of use out of them before needing to now attend a new set of classes in 2021. That could be frustrating for some, Santos said.
Seeking to solve at least some of those problems, both the state and the Town of Hudson have increased lifeguard pay.
The Department of Conservation and Recreation hiked its compensation to range between $17 and $21 per hour depending on a life guard’s experience and position.
Hudson increased its hourly rates to $14.25 after spending years paying at or around minimum wage. Minimum wage in Massachusetts is now $13.50 per hour.
Lifeguards regularly intervene to ensure safety
Santos said he was not able to directly quantify how many saves or incidents his lifeguards respond to in a given day, month or week. They do happen, though, he said.
His team also practices “preventative lifeguarding,” which involves disrupting potentially dangerous behaviors before they escalate to an injury in and around the water. Lifeguards will intervene if individuals are throwing rocks or doing flips off the Centennial Beach dock, Santos said.
As for the tragic drownings that have many across the state thinking about water safety, this summer, Santos continued to reiterate a clear message — swim with a lifeguard present.
Photos/Dakota Antelman
