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Challenges in expanding pool and beach season
1:04:58
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Council Member Krishnan inquires about the feasibility of implementing legislation to expand pool and beach opening hours and season length. Commissioner Donoghue explains the challenges faced in extending the season.
- Visitation decreases sharply in the final weeks of the season
- Staffing challenges as many lifeguards are students who return to school
- Concerns about water safety with earlier sunsets later in the season
Shekar Krishnan
1:04:58
Okay.
1:04:58
I would ask if you can provide the committee that information to reaching out to DOE as well.
1:05:03
Especially if these weekly conversations are ongoing.
1:05:05
It would be helpful to know how many school pools we're talking about.
1:05:08
So we see the full universe of what might what could be possible.
1:05:14
And going back to Well, a couple different areas.
1:05:19
Let's jump back to expanding up Poland Beach season.
1:05:23
So we held a hearing last year on this issue on my bill in particular, which would expand intro 275, which expand opening hours.
1:05:31
At the beaches and pools, as well as the span of the season.
1:05:34
So can you provide any feedback?
1:05:35
What would be necessary for the parks department to successfully implement this legislation when we enacted?
Sue Donoghue
1:05:44
Thank you, council member, for the question.
1:05:46
And we appreciate the focus, obviously, on access to pools and beaches and water safety.
1:05:54
We are really proud of the extensive work we've done, North Lifeguards And Recruitment.
1:06:01
I think that there are 2 there are a number of different factors that we would highlight.
1:06:08
We've kept beaches open for a week past Labor Day for the past several seasons.
1:06:13
And we have consistently found that visitation decreases sharply in the final weeks of the seat set.
1:06:19
We can show you we track our pulls very carefully.
1:06:21
We can track.
1:06:22
We can show you the the numbers.
1:06:26
So we see a decrease, a real fall off in August in visitation.
1:06:30
That's for one thing.
1:06:31
And it's important also to note that our staffing ranks begin to decrease as the season nears its end since Most of our seasonal lifeguards are students that need to return to school.
1:06:44
As I said, 45% of our new recruits this year were between the ages of 16 18.
1:06:50
Those are kids that are gonna go back to school in August.
1:06:53
So or that's made up of teachers, a big part of our course, people who are able to do the summer, but then have to return to school.
1:07:02
So both in terms of seeing visitation decrease, and then we know based on the data we have on who our lifeguards are, you'd see a drop in in both staffing and in visitation.
Shekar Krishnan
1:07:16
And so understanding the staffing issue, but also known as a decrease in visitation, has the parks department had any conversations about what it would take to open up Columbia, and I extend Columbia, and I understand the the challenges, but there has been has there been any conversation internally about how it could be done with the current lifeguard core that we have or or in other ways.
Sue Donoghue
1:07:39
What we tend to look at is kind of how our peers, you know, across the state do it.
1:07:45
The parts beach season is essentially identical to Long Island beaches such as Jones Beach And Long Beach, and it's significantly longer than many of the New Jersey Beach season.
1:07:56
So we feel like we're well aligned with other municipalities in terms of length of season.
1:08:04
And then also what what we know is that and and, again, emphasize our concern is about water safety, as the summer progresses and sun goes down earlier, there is limited or, you know, visibility gets more difficult, especially at the beaches.
1:08:24
One of the things that we, you know, prioritizes the lifeguards being able to provide that that protection and water safety for Beach Coast.
1:08:32
So we'd have real concern about extending, you know, the hours of the beaches when it starts to be the dust becomes earlier and, you know, would wanna make sure that we can be able to keep people safe.