Lifeguards or Graveyards?

[XLFD]

 

With the vote on how to spend $40,000 on beach safety being decided tonight at the Ludington City Council, how about $23,000 of it to go to fund a lifeguard program of the same calibre we had back in 2009.  The city hires nearly three times the seasonal labor for the Municipal Marina as for the lifeguard program and yet considerably fewer people utilize the marina.  Several young guys and gals placed at our main attraction, Stearn's Beach, to serve as our ambassadors, information dispensers, referees of park rules, and to help save lives as needed.  Do tourists even notice life rings or extra signs?   Not usually, but they do take note of those individuals the City has hired for their safety, and they notice the absence of them. 

 

What is the alternative?  People will get into trouble when they use the beach in rough waters, few will be able to be saved by life rings on the breakwater.  Others, not suitably trained or equipped, may drown in an attempt to rescue those in distress, as allegedly happened with Anthony Goldsmith last year, the first drowning victim.  The alternative seems to be death.

 

Lifeguards or graveyards?  I choose life!  City Council, please do the same, so this grave can continue to be unmarked.