By Angeljean Chiaramida
Staff writer
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SALISBURY BEACH — The state agency that operates Salisbury Beach State Reservation has eliminated the early-season lifeguard coverage at the popular park during weekdays.
According to officials at the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, from Memorial Day until Father's Day, there will be no lifeguard coverage at Salisbury Beach State Reservation Monday through Friday.
But although one of the beach's head lifeguards was told the move was due to budget cuts, DCR officials say there are other reasons for the change.
"This is not so much a budget issue as an operational one," wrote Wendy Fox, DCR's press secretary, in response to a reporter's questions. "Beaches are not heavily used during the week until late June (kids are in school, the water is still pretty cold, etc.), and resources can be used, as they are at Salisbury this spring, to hire seasonal maintenance employees a week or two earlier than normal to do additional maintenance and beach-cleaning work.
"DCR lifeguards traditionally have worked seven days a week beginning Memorial Day. This year, however, Salisbury Beach is coming into line with DCR's other ocean and inland beaches, and lifeguards will work weekends only (Saturday and Sunday) between Memorial Day weekend (May 29) and Father's Day (June 20). From Father's Day on, guards will work seven days a week."
On Saturdays and Sundays from Memorial Day to Father's Day, guards will primarily patrol the three-quarter-mile stretch of beach right beside the reservation parking lots. There will be eight guards on duty on those weekends, instead of the 10 who have patrolled the beach in years past, said Fletcher Wasson, who, along with George Nigro, is a veteran supervisor and head lifeguard.
According to Catherine Williams of the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, once at full capacity after Father's Day on June 20, there will be 20 full-time lifeguards, with four part-time guards.
When called about the cutbacks, both Wasson and Nigro expressed some concern about not being able to put a full contingent of guards on the beach every day as they have in the past.
"For their own safety, I think the public needs to know there won't be guards on the beach during the week in the early part of the season," Wasson said. "People who come to the reservation expect a fully staffed and guarded beach, whether it's a weekday or Saturday and Sunday.
"What worries me is that college students are already out, and high school students will be out of school in mid-June. On a hot day, the beach is going to be packed, and a rip current doesn't discriminate between a Saturday and Sunday or Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday."
"He's right," Nigro said. "Rip currents don't discriminate; however, the numbers of people at the beach are never as high during the week as on the weekend, which is DCR's rationale at cutting us back."
In addition, as in recent years, guards will not regularly be stationed along the entire 3.8 miles of state-owned beach along Salisbury's coastline, Wasson said. In cases of emergency, however, Wasson and Nigro assure the public, guards always respond to "unmanned" areas outside the three-quarter-mile beach abutting the reservation.
Cutbacks
Nigro said when he started at Salisbury Beach in 1983, there were 57 guards, and they covered the entire beach. In 1991, the number dropped to 21 guards, and cuts were blamed on the recession of that period.
Although the economy improved, Salisbury Beach never got its lifeguard force up to pre-recession numbers, even though Salisbury is known as a challenging piece of coastline to guard in the summer because of its propensity for cross currents and rip currents and also for its crowds, particularly on hot days.
According to revenues produced from its parking and camping fees, Salisbury Beach is first and second in revenue generation for DCR's state's parks, said Adam Martignetti, chief of staff for state Rep. Michael Costello, D-Newburyport.
Nigro said there are other state-owned beaches that have more lifeguards who cover smaller stretches of beach. Plus, he added, those parks haven't had to endure the cuts in guards Salisbury Beach has.
With such high patronage and challenging surf, during hot summers, guards are busy protecting swimmers, especially children aged 8 to 13, who make up the largest portion of rescues, Nigro said.
In 2007, for example, there were 59 rescues at Salisbury Beach between the Memorial Day through Labor Day season. In 2008, that number grew to about 80, Wasson and Nigro said. Approximately 40 percent of all rescues took place in the unmanned areas of the beach both years.
Last summer, however, there were considerably fewer rescues.
"In 2009, we saw a drop in rescues to about 30," Wasson said. "That's attributed to the poor weather we had in June and the early part of the summer last year. June had much lower beach attendance, which would lead to fewer emergencies."
Wasson and Nigro said the month with the most problematic swimming conditions is August, when the water is warmest and the surf is highest —which attracts more swimmers — and more rip currents develop.
When told of the cuts in guards at the beach during weekdays the first three weeks of June, Salisbury fire Chief Rick Souliotis said it could raise issues for local first responders.
"Sure, that could be a problem; our response time (from the fire station on Route 1) to the beach takes longer," Souliotis said. "We plan to have our boat in the water by about June 1."
The Salisbury Police Department is closest to the beach. It's often called first for rescue help after 8 p.m. when guards are no longer on duty, said Salisbury police Chief David L'Esperance, who is hoping someone will donate a used Jet Ski-type watercraft for police to use for rescues when lifeguards aren't available.
