The Board of Selectmen at its most recent meeting voted in favor of hiring more than 100 part-time employees for the 2026 summer recreation season.
Parks & Recreation Director John Howe told the elected body at its May 19 meeting that he is seeking to hire 103 this summer, as the town does each year, to help operate a wide range of municipal facilities, including revenue-generating ventures such as the pool at Waveny and camps.
“103 kids,” Howe said at the Board of Selectmen meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “This is anything from lifeguards for the Steve Benko Pool to supervisors to summer camp counselors and even umpires. It’s all our seasonal help for the summer.”
First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted in favor of the request.
This year, due to the delayed construction of an elevator inside Waveny House and its fallout for summer camps that typically use the public building when it’s raining, Howe said the town is putting a focus on keeping the ratio of counselors to campers high.
“Unfortunately, without having an easy shelter place for the kids In bad weather, we want to make sure we have enough people,” he said. “We’re working with the school system to try to be able to go to the high school for that.”
The employees get a set number of hours and vacation breaks, according to Howe.
“The way we rotate lifeguards on and off is completely different than most places so that they don’t sit in the same chair for a long period of time,” he said. “But we’re very fortunate. Places like the Steve Benko Pool are a great place to work.”