Lifeguards on wish list before plane

09.08.2010

THE cost of keeping the Marine
Watch coastal surveillance plane
in the air for a year could pay to
extend four lifeguard patrols.
A $374,000 Gold Coast City
Council wish list includes extra
patrols at The Seaway, Surfers
Paradise and Palm Beach and
weekend jet-ski patrols from Tallebudgera
to Rainbow Bay.
According to a council briefing,
$127,000 would extend patrols at
The Seaway to seven days with an
extra lifeguard and relief staff.
A drowning and near tragedies
at Pacific Beach at 19th Avenue,
Palm Beach, over the past three
summers have led to calls to lengthen
patrols to include the winter
holidays at a cost of $37,000.
The council's lifeguard services
manager John Cohen said in the
report $73,000 would pay for
weekend jet-ski patrols to manage
rogue operators of watercraft in
the southern bathing reserves.
He said most incidents occurred
on weekends and public holidays
when the area was unpatrolled.
Another $137,000 would man a
lifeguard tower between Cavill and
Elkhorn avenues when the Surfers
Paradise foreshore redevelopment
was finished.
The council this week voted
against new funding for Marine
Watch after a four-month trial
ended in April.
But the council will continue
negotiations with the plane
operator in the hope of finding
sponsors to cover the entire cost of
the program.
Mayor Ron Clarke, who has
championed Marine Watch since
the start, said he hoped it would
return to Gold Coast skies but it
would be difficult to find funding.
He said an infra-red thermalimaging
camera trialled on the
plane in May would help find
people swept away by rips in
conditions of poor visibility.