WORCESTER, Mass. - As the weather heats up, the city of Worcester is looking forward to opening the aquatic facilities for families to stay cool and for the second year in a row they’ll be partnering with a local nonprofit to make it all happen.

The city and the YMCA seem to be on the same page when it comes to making sure residents are safely using public aquatic facilities. In previous years, Worcester had a difficult time fully staffing its pools and beaches, but now they’re looking at the partnership as a positive for the city.

“Last year was a tremendous success,” YMCA Central Mass. President and CEO David Connell said.

“Last year was awesome," Worcester DPW&P Assistant Commissioner Robert Antonelli said. "We had, you know, really great success.”

Worcester is looking forward to another great summer of partnering with the YMCA of Central Mass. to staff city pools and beaches.

“Most importantly, it was a safe summer," Connell said of 2024. "And the results of that, that we were able to continue to support the city in the way that was needed at that particular time.”

Connell said the program allows the YMCA to maintain and train staff during the winter and heading into this summer they’ll have about 60 returning employees with about 60 new hires.

“We are now fully staffed, so we're ready to go," Connell said. "We're going to continue to do some ongoing training and development. We will focus on safety. We also focus on the ability for us to be able to respond to emergencies. But then most importantly, we want the family members that are utilizing those various, pools and, and waterfronts to have a good time to have fun.”

Before the pools and beaches open up, Antonelli said DPW will do a routine cleaning of all facilities, including some manicuring on the city’s beaches.

“Other than that, it's just the basic cleaning out three season buildings, which are our beach buildings, pool buildings, getting those all cleaned up first," Antonelli said. "And then we'll be ready to operate.”

Ultimately, the YMCA feels great about their partnership with Worcester.

“We find that this approach with a city and nonprofit coming together to solve a community need is so essential," Connell said, "and that has been working.”

And the city says safety is the priority heading into the summer.

“The key component is please don't swim unless we have lifeguards on staff," Antonelli said, "whether it's the state or the city.”

The first spray parks will open on Friday, June 20 with the rest of the city’s aquatic facilities opening for the season on June 27.