Mayor Cortez talks aquatic centers and city council meetings
Summer is just around the corner in Joplin and its surrounding communities, and Mayor Keenan Cortez joined Newstalk KZRG to talk about that very thing.
The warm weather is upon us and one way to stay cool in the community is access to the aquatic centers, which is now possible. The Schifferdecker and Cunningham aquatic centers are currently open from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. with extended closing on Friday at 8 p.m.
In the recent years past, staffing lifeguards had been an issue. That is no longer the case.
“We were able to pick enough lifeguards to keep us staffed throughout the summer,” Mayor Cortez said. “I do think if you’re still considering it and you’re like, ‘yeah, my summer plans didn’t work out, I might as well go be a lifeguard. That sounds like fun. That sounds like a great opportunity to serve my city.’ We’ll still take your application down. … Let’s put you to work, get you out there. You get to get a tan all summer long anyway and, and get to be in the water by the pool.”
What helped improve the staffing numbers of lifeguards? The City of Joplin decided to up the pay a bit in order to entice applicants.
“Yeah, it’s all about the money,” Cortez said. “We had historically paid our lifeguards less than minimum wage. It wasn’t just a Joplin problem. Everybody was kind of doing that. And we realized that we needed to boost the pay up a little bit, make it a little bit more equitable. The young people needed to have incentive to come be lifeguards, especially when they could go work at the movie theater, work at a fast food restaurant and make more money than being outdoors having fun all day.”
The Ewert aquatic center is currently closed as construction on updates to the park are underway.
“We are going to be going under construction with the entire Ewart park here really soon,” Cortez said. “We’re going to be putting the splash pad in that will serve as a splash pad in the summer and an ice ribbon in the winter. We’re gonna put a pavilion in down there. We’re gonna cover a basketball court. Ewart Park is gonna get a facelift.”
Mayor Cortez also noted that tonight’s city council meeting will serve a multitude of purposes. Last week’s meeting was canceled, so there are plenty of topics to touch on.
“We’re going to get some very important updates on how our revenue is coming in? What’s that look like?” Cortez said. “What’s going on with our police department, fire department, things like that and the council meeting itself. We’re going to be looking at selling off some land from our land bank. This is land that is normally not buildable.”
The meeting is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. at 602 South Main St.., and there will be a special guest.
“An exciting thing is happening tonight,” Cortez said. “Freeman Health System has a new CEO and he’s going to be coming and introducing himself to the community and saying hello to everybody. So that’ll be a pretty exciting thing to happen this evening.”