By Murphy Grant and Dylan Owens
Co-Editor-In-Chief and Staff Writer
UPDATE: Superintendent Barclay Trimble announced May 17 that Cape Hatteras National Seashore’s beaches, Coquina, Buxton and Ocracoke will have summer lifeguard operations and services beginning May 24 and continue through Labor Day. The three guarded beaches will be guarded seven days a week from 9 am to 5 pm.
Swim at your own risk. Beachgoers on Coquina, Buxton and Ocracoke beaches may learn the meaning of this phrase if local funding does not make up for federal cuts.
On Nov. 22, 2013, Outer Banks Group Superintendent Barclay Trimble announced changes to visitor services due to cuts in the National Park Service (NPS) budget. Among them was the elimination of lifeguard operations on the beaches of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore (CHNS).
“Given our current budget realities and the uncertainty for the future, the National Park Service is exercising extreme caution in spending to ensure that available funding is directed toward the highest priorities,” Trimble said.
Former CHNS Chief Lifeguard Don Hutson said his job ended March 14 because it was not considered a permanent position, even though these beaches have been guarded for more than five decades.
“Lifeguards have been on the beaches of CHNS for more than 50 years,” said Hutson, who said he is concerned for the public’s safety.
“This will affect the beachgoers of CHNS adversely. CHNS has the fourth-highest number of drownings in all of the NPS,” Hutson said. “Drowning is the number one incident of fatality in the NPS as well as CHNS.”
In previous years, the CHNS lifeguards’ jobs have entailed many responsibilities. The lifeguard must be able to recognize when swimmers are in distress, know the proper way to rescue them, be able to rescue them, and then either provide the medical care they need or be able to pass the patient over to EMS.
The job also requires lifeguards to serve as educators, informing patrons of adverse conditions and teaching them surf and open-water safety tips, according to former recreation assistant Colby Sawyer.
“I hope that it causes no impact, but I can recognize that it will. The most obvious one is the fact that there will no longer be (fulltime) lifeguards to protect people. Every year lifeguards save multiple people who, without the lifeguards, would have drowned,” Sawyer said. “It means parents have to be much more attentive toward their children and much more careful themselves.”
Last summer, NPS hired a total of 15 lifeguards, five lifeguards to man each location. The program costs approximately $175,000 each year. During the 2013 summer, CHNS lifeguards had 2,351 visitor contacts among the three beaches. Of these contacts, 79 contacts required emergency medical services with two fatal drownings, according to the Cape Hatteras Lifeguard Operation Annual Report.
After announcing the cuts, some funding became available but it was past the hiring deadline for summer, according to Cyndy Holda Outer Banks Group Public Affairs Specialist for NPS.
“Negotiations began between the superintendent and residents of the community on Ocracoke to see if NPS had time to fund, hire and manage a lifeguard operation for this summer,” Holda said.
The amount of funding, however, would only provide lifeguards for five days a week from the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, Holda said.
After weeks of negotiations, Hyde County Commissioners voted 3-2 on May 6 to appropriate $10,000 to fund the additional two days of lifeguards for Ocracoke’s public beach.
Commissioner John Fletcher voted against the measure. Fletcher told Connie Leinback of the Island Free Press that he wanted to make it clear this is a one-time deal.
Hyde County manager Bill Rich told Leinback that he dislikes having to pay for lifeguards on NPS beaches, but he thought it was the right thing to do.
“I don’t want to be county manager when the first person drowns on the lifeguard beach without lifeguards there,” Rich said. “It’s horrible that we have to do this, but, in all conscientiousness, we can’t not do it for the tourists.”
Rich told Leinback that Dare County Commissioners are not going to supplement funding for Coquina or Buxton, leaving those beaches without lifeguards two days a week. That worries people like senior Tyler Tonnesen, who worked as a Kill Devil Hills lifeguard last summer
“I think lifeguards are the best service we can give to our locals and tourists,” Tonnesen said. “Any amount of money is worth the possibility of saving one life.”
Hutson agrees.
“In my mind, this entire process has been a failure, primarily for the visitors of CHNS,” Hutson said. “The NPS management policy states that no other management action shall come before the protecting of human life. Again, drowning is the number one incident of fatality at CHNS, so why would the superintendent even consider removing this park’s only resource of protecting its visitors from its number one cause of visitor fatality?”
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