NEW MILFORD, Pa. — The hot days of summer have officially begun, and what better way to beat the heat than jumping in the closest pool? There was a lot of that happening at the New Milford Pool, and it was something many kids couldn't wait to do on a day like this.
"We were the first ones here, actually, so we had to wait for 20 minutes, just for the pool to open," said Mackenzie Smallacombe.
Was it worth it?
"Yes!!"
Glenda Olivarez recently moved to Union Dale from Wilkes-Barre and says she was thankful to have somewhere to take her brothers swimming.
"This is the best. Probably the best day to spend the first day of summer in a nice pool before it storms later on," Olivarez said.
Brittany Humphrey brought her kids to the pool for the day and was thankful after a year of restrictions that the kids have something normal to do this summer.
"Very lucky that it's open and everybody as a community can come together," Humphrey said.
We've heard of several pools in our area not being able to open for the season because of staffing issues, but that's not the case in New Milford.
"There's a lot of my friends that have been trying to get in, and since we need to keep those current lifeguards still on the schedule, we couldn't have as many as we wanted to," said lifeguard Lillian Bleck.
"Kids wanting to step up and help the community out, that's an awesome thing. It definitely shows what good people we have in our community," Humphrey said.
Bleck says this is her second season as a lifeguard at the pool, and she looks forward to working here for the summer because she knows how much it means to the kids in the area and can't understand why other teens wouldn't want to do it too.
"Of so many people that want to have this job, I couldn't imagine. This is the perfect most ideal. You just sit around the pool all day watching people swim. It's great. I love it."
The New Milford Pool opens every day at noon through the end of the summer.