Local agency dives into staffing woes at Beckley pools

May 1—A local staffing agency is hoping to help the city of Beckley find the staff it needs — including a pool manager — to open its pools this summer.

As of this week, Noah Kapp, vice president of AtWork Personnel, said his team has recruited about a dozen potential lifeguards as well as a possible pool manager for Beckley's two municipal pools.

"We are putting ourselves on the line saying that we can do this for you," Kapp said. "We are confident in ourselves, especially after this grassroots movement to kind of recruit, and we've already gotten the number of people we need to staff the pool."

In order to make the partnership official, Kapp said a contract will need to be reviewed by the city and receive approval from the Beckley Common Council.

Kapp said his team decided to take on the city's pool staffing challenge about two weeks ago without any prompting from the city after word first broke that Beckley's two pools, the Sharon Dempsey Memorial pool (formerly the New River pool) and the Historic Black Knight pool, would not open in 2023.

Beckley Parks and Recreation Director Leslie Baker said this decision was made after she was unable to find a qualified pool manager.

Even after making the announcement about the pools closing for the season, Baker said she has continued to search for a pool manager in the hope of possibly opening just the Sharon Dempsey pool later in the year.

In an email to The Register-Herald Monday, Baker said, "The City continues to move forward with preparations to open the Sharon Dempsey Pool for the 2023 season. We are exploring all available employee options and are grateful to At/Work for their offer to help. However, finding the best applicants takes time and all staffing contracts must be reviewed by the City's HR and legal departments."

Unlike years past, Baker said there is an abundance of trained lifeguards they could hire. However, Baker said hiring a manager has been her first priority so as to avoid the same difficulties they faced last year when an offsite company managed the pools.

Even without a contract in place, Kapp said his company has already invested a great deal of resources and funds because they know how important the pool is to the community.

Kapp said AtWork has paid for a few of their recruits to take the prerequisite lifeguard certification class offered at the YMCA of Southern West Virginia last week in the hope that the city will approve a contract soon.

"We have people who are ready to go," he said. "Without approval for the city, we are going to upfront the money for those classes in the hopes that the city will approve this and they can get started."

He added that they've also been contacted by the Carter Foundation and the Kelly Foundation, which plan to contribute funds to training lifeguards.

The Carter Foundation is also contributing funds to the Y and the city of Beckley for the same purpose.

Jenna Sexton, HR director and recruiter for AtWork, said much of their recruitment has happened through social media.

"We wanted to start by targeting the people that it affects the most, which are our students — high school, college. So we started recruiting there," Sexton said. "I got in touch with my sister; she's a high school student at Woodrow ... she blasted it on Snapchat, and my phone was blowing up with names and numbers of people who were interested.

"Now with staffing, you know that if you send out 50 applications, you may get five back. But it's all in the way you work it. So I think I got maybe 14 applications, and we've got six to seven out of those already and that's in a week's time."

Sexton said they implemented the same strategy to connect with students from West Virginia University Institute of Technology.

Kapp said they are also planning to do job fairs at local high schools and colleges.

Even though Baker has said that the city will only attempt to open the Sharon Dempsey at New River Park this year, Kapp said he's hoping that they can find enough staffing to open both pools.

"We've kind of taken a break while we wait for the city to give us a little bit more information about what direction they want to head in," he said. "We're really at their mercy, but we feel like, even if we get the lifeguards, we can send them to other pools if need be. We'd really like it to go towards the city. That's kind of why we stepped in and we're basically doing this for almost cost."

Last year the city paid USA Pools/USA Management $130,000 to manage, staff and operate its two pools. However, the city says USA Pools was unable to fulfill several of its contractual obligations, most notably the number of days the pools were open because of low staffing numbers. As a result, the city is in litigation with the company to recoup some of its funds.

Kapp said the cost to the city for a contract with AtWork would be less than 30 percent of what it paid USA Pools.

If the city does not move forward with a contract with AtWork, Kapp said he intends to reach out to other pools in the area who may also need staff.

Just last week, Dean Capehart, who serves as treasurer for the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) pool at the Black Diamond Lodge on Lakeview Drive in Beckley, said they were able to get enough membership to open the policeman's pool this year.

To apply with AtWork go to atwork.com/locations/191/Beckley.

Email: jmoore@register-herald.com