AUSTIN, Texas — Editor's note: The above video was published May 7, one day before Texas pools were allowed to reopen.
While pools are among the many spaces Gov. Greg Abbott has allowed to reopen in Texas, the City of Austin says it has no timeline for when city pools may reopen.
The City is also currently unable to hire any lifeguards, as they are included in the citywide hiring freeze. A spokesperson with the Parks and Recreation Department said the City has 234 lifeguards ready to work out of the 700 needed for full operations.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the City was actually ahead of last year in lifeguard hires but is now behind because they can't hire or do on-site training.
"We did work with lifeguards already in the hiring process to complete some of the educational requirements online, but all in-water testing has been suspended," said spokesperson John R. Nixon.
Nixon also said that the situation is "rather fluid," so things could change and that the City is hoping to share information about modified operations in the next few weeks but there is no timetable for those announcements as of right now.
The City of Austin has an interactive map on its website which shows the hours of operation for public pools.
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Gov. Abbott announced earlier this month that, starting on May 8, indoor swimming pools could operate at up to 25% of the total listed occupancy of the swimming pool facility, and outdoor pools could operate at 25% of the normal operating limits as determined by the swimming pool operator. Local public swimming pools could also operate, but only if permitted by the local government. Here are the guidelines pools have to follow if they open.
KVUE also reported earlier in May that while some Central Texas cities weren't planning to open their pools on May 8, some neighborhoods did play to open theirs.
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