Trouble in Paradise: Long Island faces lifeguard “crisis

Summer on Long Island. If you grew up or around here, you KNOW that means plenty of poolside and beachside fun. But, just how safe is having fun in the sun these days. Besides concerns about overexposure to the sun, beachgoers may now face having to fend for themselves in case of emergency.

It seems that Long Island and its surrounding areas are currently short on lifeguards. And, those in charge are scaling back on efforts to reinforce the rookie forces.

And, with summer in full swing, it seems the areas that are seeing the most serious shortages are Nassau County and New York City, but they are also the two areas that are working the hardest to reverse a “nationwide” phenomenon.

In fact, official note that Nassau (County) is taking every measure possible to set in place more than 30 lifeguards and they are doing it by keeping training costs affordable and offering newbies $10 hourly to start. And, City officials are aiming for recruiting over 200 additional lifeguards.

Regrdless, they add that despite the “incentives” finding recruitees gets harder every year.

Still, Suffolk County seems to be maintaining its lifeguard pool with a full host of recruits, which many say are made up mostly of returnees.

However, some town officials say that all three Nassau towns have a full staff of lifeguards for their pools and beaches this summer. Suffolk towns, including Babylon, Brookhaven, Huntington, Smithtown, Islip, Southold and Easthampton also say they’ve been able to find enough lifeguards.

And, while some towns did not respond, and the state has noted that there has been an overall decrease for Long Island lifeguards over the past several years, officials suggest hat Long Islands numbers have been fairly consistent in both parks and state beaches.