A hot topic of the last three Town Council meetings has been renewal of this contract. As submitted the service would remain the same as the last couple of years and cost $140,000. After the initial presentation the service representative Mirek Dabrowski was asked to cut the contract cost. Mirek agreed to return with a modified contract.
To better understand what impact a change might have let’s look at how the existing service is organized:
From May 1 to Memorial Day a roving patrol is provided with a Lifeguard on a 4-wheeler covering our four mile beach. From the Tuesday after Labor Day to October 15th there is again one roving Lifeguard.
Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend our beach is covered by stationary guards at stands (Hillcrest Access and Chicahauk), two roving guards patrolling the rest of the area, one roving guard shared by Duck and Southern Shores (Plover in Duck, Hillcrest in Southern Shores), and one Supervisor shared between the two towns.
In the past, the Town depended on the contractor to organize this service based on the need and his expertise. The company maintains a count of people using the beach through the summer months and uses those statistics to determine the level of protection required, based on density.
The only change to service in the last three seasons was the addition of a shared roving guard between Plover and Hillcrest accesses due to the increase in use at those two popular areas.
At the last regular council meeting a number of alternatives were proposed and discussed.
Mayor Smith suggested (as he has in the past) that swimming at our beaches should be at a persons’ own risk and is a matter of personal responsibility. Further, that at most, we should do as “we do in New Jersey” and only provide lifeguard service at the two stationary stands where the guarded areas would be marked by flags. Town Manager Charlie Read seemed to agree by indicating that Council should consider experimenting with that idea for one summer season to see how that would work out.
Mirek was asked by a council member if the contract could be reduced by changing the service period to just Memorial Day through Labor Day, he initially responded that it could be done that way if council wished... This caused an extensive discussion regarding coverage outside that period and what other agency would be dispatched to cover any incident that might occur. Ultimately, Mirek was asked, and he agreed, to return with a more balanced proposal to include a 10% reduction in cost.
Other than the above, the Town Manager stated that the contact should be placed on an annual renewal instead of the indicated three year contract.
The last contract proposal I have knowledge of was presented at Council Retreat and consisted of the following:
May 1 to Memorial Day weekend and from Labor Day through October 15th
one Lifeguard would be on-call to be dispatched to any incidents between the hours of 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM.
Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend there would be two stationary guards, one roving patrol and one shared Supervisor.
It seemed that the Town Manager was not pleased with this version and told Mirek to meet with him later in the week to discuss changes. At this point the status of the contract is undetermined, I will report back on this when I am able to obtain more information. Other than that we may have to wait to see if this will be covered in the January 22nd Council Meeting Agenda.
This situation seems to beg the question: Should a service involving the safety of our citizens and visitors be based on the level of service needed or based on a dollar amount and designed to fit?
What do you think? I would love to see some other perspectives on this matter.
No comments:
Post a Comment