Cortez recreation director Creighton Wright on Tuesday, Sept. 13, told City Council he hopes to return the city rec center to full, pre-pandemic services and hours of operation.

Many programs dropped off because of the coronavirus pandemic and staffing shortages, including swim lessons, the high school swim team and lifeguards.

“We need to re-create our swim culture,” Wright said.

To bring back swim programs, the lifeguard program needs to be built back up, he said.

To encourage more available lifeguards in the future, the Rec Center is looking into creating a junior lifeguard program to get more people interested in the job.

The idea is that “kids who are not old enough to be a lifeguard can start learning about what it is like to be a lifeguard, so ideally next year we have a crop of kids interested,” Wright said.

Various exercise classes at the Rec Center were also reduced or dropped because of the pandemic.

To coordinate more classes and instructors, Wright wants to bring back a facility manager position that had been previous cut. Developing drop-in youth programming is also needed at the Rec Center, he said.