Baltimore officials have announced the city pool schedule as part of a plan to tackle extreme-heat events this summer.

The city has already experienced a high of 91 degrees, in April, breaking an 85-year-old heat record, City Administrator Faith Leach said in a news conference Thursday morning. City agencies and offices, including Recreation and Parks and Emergency Management, are working to be more intentional with resources to share with residents, Leach said.

Six city pools will begin operating on May 23: Cherry Hill, Druid Hill, Lake Clifton, Riverside, Patterson and Roosevelt. They will initially be open only on weekends, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.

All neighborhood and parks pool begin full-season operations starting June 16. The city reopened Towanda, Coldstream and Walter P. Carter pools last summer, and Greater Model Park Pool will reopen this season, said Reginald Moore, the city’s recreation and parks director.

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The Baltimore Department of Public Works will also roll out a plan to prevent heat-related illness and ensure employees take mandated breaks when working outdoors.

In the summer of 2024, the Baltimore Office of Inspector General released two reports on the conditions at city-run sanitation facilities, finding broken air conditioning, inoperable water fountains and nonfunctional ice machine. A sanitation worker, Ronald Silver II, died of a heatstroke while on his regular route that August.

City officials will also conduct targeted outreach for populations at high-risk of extreme heat-related illness, including children, the elderly and those who are pregnant or unhoused, Leach said.

The Baltimore City Health Department will issue a Code Red extreme heat alert when the heat index — that is, the air temperature and relative humidity — is greater or equal to 105 degrees, said Michelle Taylor, the department’s commissioner.

Outdoor pools will have three 2-hour open swimming sessions to allow for more residents to cool off safely during Code Red days, Moore said.