Low Standard Mayor lowers qualifications for lifeguards

 QNS

Rockaway Beach welcomed back tens of thousands of New Yorkers on Saturday as the city reopened 14 miles of public beaches, one day after Mayor Eric Adams announced a surprise deal between NYC Parks and DC37, the union representing lifeguards, so more beaches could open during the Memorial Day weekend.

During a hastily scheduled press conference at City Hall on Friday, the Mayor and NYC Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue said an arbitration panel issued an award in the city’s ongoing negotiations with the DC37 bargaining unit that will “functionally pave the way” for the city to be able to hire more lifeguards, allow more swimming capacity at beaches and pools, and improve operations of the city lifeguard program.

 “Today’s a big win for public safety at our pools and beaches means we’ll be able to hire more lifeguards for this summer and get even more in the pipeline for summers to come,” Adams said. “All our lifeguards will still be trained in CPR, first aid, and rescue skills, and we’ll be able to have our strongest swimmers focused on our beaches, where conditions are rougher.” Like the beaches along the Rockaway peninsula where rip tides can be particularly dangerous, posing a threat over the last several years due to chronic lifeguard shortages.

“Since the pandemic, it’s been an enormous challenge throughout the country, we know, to hire lifeguards and New York City has been no exception,” Donoghue said. “At Parks, we have been working hard to rebuild our lifeguard ranks and have implemented new policies to bring as many lifeguards as we possibly can.”

Fully staffed beaches are crucial to the economy in the Rockaways, but after multiple fatal drownings in recent years, Council Member Joann Ariola has reservations about the lifeguard deal.

“We absolutely should not be slashing standards in such an important area,” Ariola told QNS on Saturday. “Our lifeguards need to be supremely qualified to ensure that, if a crisis happens, they are in the best condition possible to save a life. The city should be devoting more resources towards swimming education, so that young New Yorkers will have the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to make them excellent lifeguards. Cutting standards like this is dangerous, and I can’t see anything good coming from it. It is a tragedy waiting to happen.”

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NYC Parks didn't hire enough lifeguards this summer

 NY Post

A staffing shortage is causing some Rockaway Beach lifeguards to fly solo, creating a potentially dangerous situation, guards told The Post.

Lifeguards at the city beach said the long hours on the stand alone compromise safety as they become fatigued or have to deal with multiple rescues. Some staged a protest on Friday.

“If you were out in the water drowning, four of us (have) a lot better chance of seeing you than if I’m by myself on that chair. Especially on a day like today: foggy, muggy,” one lifeguard in his 10th year said Saturday.

Others said they were not even allowed to take bathroom breaks, a distraction that made it harder to focus on swimmers. They said supervisors were not sympathetic.

“All they do when we try to explain to them that we need help and we need the manpower is just, like, ‘Well, you get paid for eight hours.’ ” one guard said.

The Parks Department is missing one-third of its lifeguards which also forced the cancellation of swimming lessons, water exercise classes and swim teams as pools opened for the season Saturday.

The department said it “expected” to have 950 lifeguards ready to go as 49 outdoor pools welcomed swimmers. Beaches already opened May 29.

New lifeguard stations stand unused

DNA Info/Katie Honan

From DNA Info:

A multimillion-dollar lifeguard shack installed after Hurricane Sandy on one of the peninsula's most popular beaches remains shuttered — nearly two months into summer.

The pair of buildings — which were part of a controversial project after Hurricane Sandy that has cost the city more than $121 million so far — have been standing empty at beach 97th Street and the waterfront since Memorial Day, officials admitted.

"Though lifeguards are staffing the beach in this area, they haven’t yet moved into the 97th Street building," Parks Department spokeswoman Meghan Lalor wrote in an email to DNAinfo New York.

"They will be in the building within the week."

A Parks Department spokeswoman said the shacks were closed while the city completed the second phase of the boardwalk, which opened July 3. However, the lifeguard shack is on a portion of the boardwalk that has been open since Memorial Day.

Many beaches still not open in Rockaway

From the Queens Courier:

Just because a beach is open doesn’t mean people are allowed to swim there.

As of Thursday, only 29 of the more than 100 beaches in the Rockaways are open to swimming because of damage caused by Superstorm Sandy coupled with a dearth of lifeguards, the Parks Department said.

The rest have “normal access,” which, according to the Parks Department, means people are allowed to walk in the sand.

“Swimming is only permitted where there are lifeguards, which is never the entire seven mile beach,” said Zachary Feder, a Parks Department spokesman. “But walking is permitted along the entire length.”

Superstorm Sandy caused major damage to the beaches along Rockaway, which now has the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers working to repair many of them. They are using large pipes to pump sand from the ocean floor on to certain beaches which makes those specific locations closed to swimming.

Rockaway beach cocktails nixed

From the Daily News:

Rockaway’s remaining food concessionaires returned to their beachfront stands for the Fourth of July, but their excitement about reopening was tempered by a newly instituted ban on hard liquor sales.
Beer and wine are still on the menu, but margaritas and mojitos are off limits.

The operators, who have been luring foodies to the beach since the city revamped the concessions in 2011, learned about the change in recent weeks, and they were unhappy about it.

They are already struggling to recover from losses inflicted by Superstorm Sandy, and they say this does nothing to help.

“We’d love to have it back,” said Lindsay Robinson, the co-owner of Low Bar near Beach 97th St., who served up margaritas and dark and stormies from the boardwalk site last summer. “We didn’t have any problems with it last year.”

The change came at the request of city lifeguards, who asked the Parks Department to nix the sale of cocktails for safety reasons, sources told the Daily News.

Lifeguards are on duty until 6 p.m. at city beaches. The time they call it a day was the same time the beachgoers were allowed to start buying cocktails.