Town To Revisit Lighthouse Beach Policy

by Alan Pollock

            CHATHAM — Less than a week after a town official publicly expressed relief that there had been no injuries on Lighthouse Beach this summer, the unthinkable happened.   

Most beachgoers seem to take no notice of the warning signs at Lighthouse Beach.  ALAN POLLOCK PHOTO

           The death of a 46-year-old Groton, Mass., man, who was overcome while swimming to the aid of his 10-year-old daughter, has put a fine edge on the debate over the town’s management of Lighthouse Beach.  The 17-year-old off-duty Harwich lifeguard who rescued the little girl, and who in turn had to be rescued by a boat, said she is aware of the debate over management of the beach.  It is shameful, she said, that it has taken a tragedy to reopen the discussion.

            “I don’t think people are as aware of the water conditions as they should be,” Tanya O’Donnell said.  A lifeguard for the past two years, O’Donnell said she saw the many signs the town has posted warning people to swim at their own risk, but knows that most people don’t take the warnings seriously.  She admits even she didn’t even take too much notice.

            “You don’t know that there’s these currents,” she said.  She went to the beach with her mother, and had no idea how powerful the currents would be.  “It’s a family beach,” she said.  “Not everyone in my family’s a strong swimmer.”  As soon as she entered the water, O’Donnell knew she would be unable to fight the moving water.

            Board of Selectmen Chairman Sean Summers said the board of selectmen would “obviously” take up the beach management policies again.  He said he has heard O’Donnell’s concerns about the beach.

            “I think she’s right,” Summers said.

            Town officials have rescued untold numbers of swimmers from Lighthouse Beach over the years, but have never placed lifeguards at the beach, saying to do so would be to imply that swimming is safe there.  Though officials have been careful not to identify Lighthouse Beach as a bathing beach, it has become increasingly popular with beachgoers in recent years because of the scenery, the large expanse of sand, and the free parking.

            On Aug. 26, 2005, a 26-year-old Chatham man drowned at Lighthouse Beach, though officials say his death may have been linked to a preexisting medical condition.  Less than a year later, a 55-year-old New Hampshire man died at the beach, though officials believe he also suffered a medical emergency while swimming.

            In 2003, selectmen approved the use of a patrol boat on busy beach days to monitor bathers at Lighthouse Beach.  On one day in 2005, the boat operator reported rescuing an estimated two dozen swimmers from the beach.  In response to the drowning that year, the town added a land-based beach patrol, using an ATV, to better monitor the beach.  Additionally, there are around a half-dozen signs warning beachgoers that the area is unsafe for swimming.  All of those safeguards were in place during this week’s tragedy.

            Two years ago, selectmen ceded their authority over Lighthouse Beach to the town’s park and recreation commission, which controls most of the town’s other beaches.  The commission adopted formal rules and regulations for the beach, and shortly thereafter, the town installed portable rest rooms there.  Last week, commission Chairman Gary Anderson told selectmen the time has come to consider instituting paid parking for Lighthouse Beach, which has grown in popularity and drawn people away from the town’s paid-parking beaches.

            Summers said town officials are struggling with a larger issue: whether to admit that Lighthouse Beach is a de facto bathing beach, and provide the appropriate level of service.  “What we’ve done is sort of take a middle road,” Summers said.  The time has come, he said, for the town to decide on the best approach for public safety.

            While he said he probably would not support a proposal to make the beach off-limits to all swimmers, Summers said it might be possible for the beach to be patrolled by a combination of lifeguards and personal watercraft.

            “It may cost us a little more money,” he cautioned, and that may mean an increase in the budget or a reallocation of other resources. 

            Harbormaster Stuart Smith said town officials need an efficient way to alert beachgoers of unsafe conditions in the water.

            “I think we need a system of flags,” he said.  Given the dangerous combination of wind and tide, Sunday “would’ve been a red flag day,” Smith said.  The harbormaster said he will draft up his recommendations for town officials to consider.

            The park and recreation commission was expected to discuss the town’s response to the emergency during this week’s meeting, chairman Anderson said.  Anderson said while he believes it is never safe to swim at Lighthouse Beach, he also thinks there is no way to prevent people from doing so, “unless you put a chain link fence along the beach.” Anderson said he doesn’t even support the use of a warning system of flags there.

            “It gives you a false sense of security,” he said.  At times when the red flag isn’t up, beachgoers will assume it’s safe to swim, “and I don’t think that area’s ever safe.”

            By some estimates, posting lifeguards along the most-used stretch of Lighthouse Beach could potentially double the number of lifeguards already hired each year for other beaches in town.  From her perspective, O’Donnell thinks it’s the only way to go.

            “I know it’s very costly.  But I think even if it’s not [life]guards, there should be more staff on the beach patrol, and the harbormaster should receive more funding to have more boats in the water,” she said.

9/4/08