Local lifeguards were busy this week training in preparation for the summer swim season. A lifeguard is responsible for the safety of people in an area of water, whose priority is to ensure no harm comes to users of the area for which they are responsible.

Instructors used their time to train the teens to enforce the rules of the park, to maintain concentrate observation of their duty area and to identify an emergency quickly, as well to carry out rescues and to give immediate first aid in the event of an injury.

This week, 18 lifeguards – 10 from Andalusia and Opp and the remaining from Blue Lake Methodist Camp – were hard at work in the waters of Cooper Pool.

Andalusia city officials said pools will officially open for public swim on Monday with the following schedule: Coleman Pool on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and Cooper on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturday from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m.

In Opp, the city’s Hardin Street pool opened Friday, with the following summer hours: Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m., closed from noon until 1 p.m. for lunch and on the weekends from 1 p.m. until 4 p.m.