Taking the plunge: Oakdale says goodbye to lifeguards

City beaches going unguarded?

That's the trend in Washington County, further confirmed recently when Oakdale became the latest city to eliminate its summer lifeguards.

"It's just another cost control measure," said City Administrator Craig Waldron, who added that police and fire departments are close to the Tanners Lake beach and an emergency phone will be available for swimmers. "In terms of liability and safety it appears it doesn't make much difference. We can be there in a matter of minutes."

A much different viewpoint comes from Oakdale resident Pam Reilly, who takes as many as 10 children from her day care business to the beach on hot summer days.

"I just shudder to think what's going to happen if we go there this year and there aren't any lifeguards," Reilly said.

Lifeguards are symbols of authority who helped control offensive behavior, she said, including intervening in a couple of instances she witnessed when people were having sex in the water. Some teenage girls have gone topless, anglers cast lines inside the swimming boundaries, boats maneuver too close to children, and profane language from gatherings of youth nearby scares away families, she said.

"It's just heart-wrenching to me," said Reilly, who said the city, instead of firing lifeguards, should have assessed an annual park fee to pay their salaries.

Still, Oakdale's action follows a trend by cities across the metro from Forest Lake to Prior Lake. Forest Lake hasn't had lifeguards at its city beach since 2004. Woodbury eliminated lifeguards at Carver Lake Beach in 2009. Washington County has two smaller unguarded beaches on the St. Croix River, but hires lifeguards for three large, busy beaches at Lake Elmo, Big Marine and Square Lake parks.

"We take our beach patrol really seriously," said Mike Polehna, operations manager for the county's parks division. "Lifeguarding is really a hard job. You have a lot of responsibility. It's the lifeguard's job to keep order on the beach and respond to emergencies."

County beaches draw huge crowds on weekends. As many as 5,000 people hit the Lake Elmo Park Reserve beach on a single day. Lifeguards at Big Marine might watch over as many as 1,000 people.

As cities tighten budgets, the role of a modern lifeguard comes under debate. Drownings have been rare -- a 20-year-old man died at Tanners Lake in 2006 is the city's most recent drowning -- and many beachgoers now grab their cell phones if an emergency occurs. But all too often, lifeguards have had to cope with misbehavior out of the water and unreasonable expectations from some parents.

In Oakdale, police were called 53 times to Tanners Lake beach and park last summer. In 2009, they were summoned 20 times. The jump in calls, said city crime analyst Karen Haines, was related to kids gathering in the park mostly at night. However, 24 of those calls to police in 2010 came specifically from the beach for complaints such as disorderly conduct and disturbances. In some instances, Haines said, lifeguards made the calls to police.

In Forest Lake, parents sometimes left their children unattended at Lakeside Park Beach with the expectation that lifeguards would baby-sit them, said Renae Reedy, the city's park coordinator. "Lifeguards can keep them safe in the water but can't necessarily supervise their behavior if they go over to the park," Reedy said. "They could walk all over the downtown."

To watch over "unruly rowdy behavior" on the beach and nearby park, city-hired "park rangers" go on patrol and call police when necessary, she said.

At county beaches, Polehna said, lifeguards advise parents every half hour to supervise their children.

Woodbury's decision to pull lifeguards from Carver Lake -- at a savings of about $12,000 a year -- came when many metro cities were doing the same thing. The city expected a wave of complaints but didn't get many, said spokeswoman Julie Lehr.

But the opposite happened with Oakdale's next-door neighbor, North St. Paul. A city proposal last year to pull lifeguards from Silver Lake led to a storm of protest from residents. The city then found funding for the beach, with help from residents who raised money to pay for the lifeguards, said Laurie Koehnle, a city spokeswoman.

The Feb. 22 decision by the Oakdale City Council to eliminate lifeguards means a savings of about $21,000 this summer that will be invested in the city's summer concert series, Waldron said. The city's concession stand at the beach will remain open and staffed, he said.

Reilly said she's certified in CPR and enlists another adult to help when she takes children to the beach, but she's alarmed at Oakdale's decision. Because many of her children have special needs, "swimming at the beach is the best thing in the world for them."

To those kids, Reilly said, a lifeguard was someone to respect and they would follow directions from the person sitting on a tower.

"They listen fabulously because they love going to the beach," she said. "They look up there and see that person with a whistle and that's authority to them."

Kevin Giles • 651-735-3342