Parks and Recreation Service Levels

We will post a 2024 service level update here when it is available.

Through the winter and spring, Boulder Parks and Recreation (BPR) has focused on hiring enough seasonal staff for peak summer fun.

While we continue to be impacted by the nationwide labor shortage, we expect to provide most department services at the highest level since 2019.

We’ve hired over 215 lifeguards to staff our pools, the most the department has ever hired at one time for a summer. The lifeguard staff will keep our community members safe at North Boulder Recreation Center, East Boulder Community Center, Scott Carpenter Pool, and, open for the first time since 2020, Spruce Pool.

Throughout the winter and spring, we have focused on hiring enough seasonal staff for peak summer fun in recreation programming, swimming, and in our park system. Like many organizations, we have faced challenges hiring enough folks to fill these positions. The nationwide labor market shortage has impacted the number of applicants we received for our seasonal positions, despite funding available to operate many services this year at near pre-pandemic levels.

Now that we are ready for the summer, we have had to carefully prioritize what services we can offer to provide maximum benefit to the community.

We hoped to fill all open positions and have consistent operating hours at recreation facilities and pools, all services available at the Reservoir and Flatirons Golf Course, and park amenities fully maintained.

During our planning, we anticipated three possible “service level” scenarios in each of our areas of operation:

• Ideal – Services at planned/optimal levels based on our approved budget and fully staffed.
• Reduced – Services at 2021 levels, which are reduced from pre-pandemic due to not enough staff to provide services at the ideal level, i.e., reduced hours and services, delays in maintenance
• Constrained – Significantly reduced level of services and below 2021 levels, i.e., limited services, noticeable reductions, safety is the priority and no services above and beyond “core services”

Each level had a staffing threshold for what services/operations/programming that could be offered. The ideal scenario is based upon the recovery we planned for and was funded when developing our 2022 budget.

Generally, the department will operate at either a reduced or constrained level for this summer.