CITY PARKS WORKER, LIFEGUARD POSITIONS

245 Permanent Jobs Open; 400 Summer Posts; No Education or Work Experience Needed For Park Title

The Parks Department is looking to hire 245 fulltime City Park Workers and 400 Lifeguards for summer jobs, Commissioner Adrian P. Benepe said.

The starting salary for City Park Worker is $26,977. To qualify, candidates must have a driver's license and meet certain medical and physical requirements. There is no education or experience requirement.

'Expanding Work Force'

"Thanks to Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Christine Quinn's commitment to Parks, we are expanding our work force to ensure their continued cleanliness," Mr. Benepe said. "A new influx of City Park Workers will provide essential resources to care for our nearly 29,000 acres of parkland."

District Council 37 Local 983 President Mark Rosenthal lobbied the Bloomberg administration to add the funds for the new workers. Individuals with preferred skills have the best chance of being hired. According to the job vacancy notice, those qualifications are: an associate's degree or bachelor's degree; the ability to drive to all five boroughs; ability to work nights, weekends, and holidays; the ability to speak Spanish; and a commercial driver's license.

City Park Workers assist in general park maintenance assignments, including lawn-mowing, edging, seeding, snow-removal, fertilizing, sod-laying, and hedge-trimming. They clean and maintain parks and facilities and perform minor repair work, which may involve plumbing, masonry, electrical, painting and carpentry.

Further information is available at the Parks Web site www.nycgovparks.org under the "Opportunities" link, or via e-mail at http://grow@parksnyc.gov . Individuals interested in the job should submit a cover letter and their resume with the job vacancy number to: Personnel-Recruitment, City of New York/Parks and Recreation, 24 West 61st St., 2nd floor, New York, N.Y., 10023.

Lifeguard Openings

The Parks Department is also testing for hundreds of Lifeguard jobs available at city beaches and pools this summer.

The city plans to recruit and train 1,200 Lifeguards in time for the summer season, which begins Memorial Day weekend. Many of the positions will be filled with returning personnel, but the city is still looking to hire approximately 400 new Lifeguards.

The starting salary is $11.72 an hour. New hires will likely be assigned to work at pools in Manhattan and Brooklyn and at the Rockaway and Coney Island beaches. All positions available are full-time.

To qualify, candidates must be at least 16 years old and pass a rigorous performance test that includes swimming 50 yards in 35 seconds. Candidates must also have a minimum of 20/30 vision in one eye and 20/40 in the other, without glasses or contact lenses.

The primary testing site is at the Parks Lifeguard School, located at 533 West 59th St. in Manhattan. The test times are 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. daily. Advance reservations are not required.

Training Course

All candidates who meet the basic qualifications are eligible for the 35-hour training program. Candidates are paid for their training time after they complete the 16-week course. The instruction covers basic rescue techniques, swimming skills, CPR, and first aid. Training also includes lessons on approaches to spinal injury management, and there is a final swim examination.

Appointees working at beaches must be able to swim 440 yards in 6 minutes and 40 seconds, and Lifeguards assigned to pools have to swim that distance within 7 minutes and 40 seconds.

The beaches are scheduled to open for swimming on May 26, and the pools open June 29. The season will end after Labor Day. The city has seven beaches and 52 outdoor pools.

Further information is available on the Parks Department Web site, www.nyc.gov/parks or by calling 311.