VERO BEACH — As Vero Beach stretches its recreation dollars to the max, charities and local businesses have stepped up to fill in the gap.
The Vero Beach Lifeguard Association has received more than $10,000 in equipment donated for ocean rescue efforts and now has a new goal of raising funds to build a tower and headquarters at Humiston Park.
“With our city’s beach attendance at record numbers but city budgets shrinking, the Vero Beach Lifeguard Association has taken proactive steps to equip lifeguards with tools to make our beaches safer,” said lifeguard and VBLA founder Erik Toomsoo.
The lifeguards have formed a partnership with Dave Farrow of contractor Farrow Construction and architect Tony Donadio of Donadio and Associates on a plan for a lifeguard tower and a headquarters building to be constructed at no cost to the taxpayers over the next few months.
“This is just a proposal; we have to bring it up through the city and the recreation commission,” Toomsoo said. “We have two ideas – first of all we want to have an actual tower for the lifeguards. Right now, we just sit on the steps of the boardwalk exposed to the elements, visibility isn’t great and there’s little space between them and the people.”
Toomsoo said the beaches occasionally attract “crazy people” and that he’s been stalked, threatened and even struck while on the job.
“There’s an incentive to have some separation from the public and, not only that, if you’re sitting out there in the wind and the rain, it’s not good. (It would be) basically an appendage off the boardwalk,” he said. “Right next to the Humiston Park boardwalk you you’ve got this little pavilion and that’s where we would build it, on the same footprint, a second story on the pavilion that’s already there.”
Lifeguard supervisors now have an office at Bethel Creek House, across A1A from Jaycee Park, the city’s northernmost guarded beach.
“But Humiston is centrally located,” Toomsoo said. “Humiston is staffed by part-timers because it’s only 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and you’ve got some of the less-experienced guards there, so having the headquarters there is the best way to supervise. It would improve command and control when an incident goes down.”
The initial concept would be for a 15-foot by 20-foot office and training room to provide cover for ocean rescue operations and for classes, which are now held in the open.
“Tony Donadio is doing the design work for free and he’ll help with the permitting, Dave Farrow said he would get the materials donated and the lifeguards will build it. At VBLA we have some money on hand, $6,000 to $7,000,” Toomsoo said. “The city can’t afford it, but obviously we think it’s necessary. We’re seeing some crazy record numbers on the beaches and we want to give them a safe experience.”
Vero Beach Recreation Director Rob Slezak said he’s grateful to private citizens who have helped him fund important things for his department, both the lifeguards and the Buggy Bunch, a non-profit network of mothers who bought a $20,000 sun shade for the playground at Jaycee Park and who are also donating a changing table for the Riverside Park restrooms.
The sun shade is being installed in preparation for a ribbon-cutting celebration this Thursday.
Toomsoo said he hopes to have plans to present to the city’s recreation commission by this summer and to build the tower and headquarters by the end of 2014.
“My goal is to get it approved and built before the electric is sold,” he added, half-jokingly.
