Beach & Lifeguard Updates Top April BHPOA Meeting

By Katie McFadden

As we gear up for summer, the April Belle Harbor Property Owners Association meeting at the Belle Harbor Yacht Club on Tuesday, April 21, offered plenty of insight into what’s in store for beach preparations, lifeguards, and more.

The packed meeting began with introductions to some new faces, including Captain Phil Wu, the new executive officer of the 100th Precinct, who started two weeks ago, and Carl Brown, the new Rockaway office liaison for Senator James Sanders, who spoke a bit about the holdup with the state budget, including car insurance and climate change issues.

BHPOA president Paul King then provided updates. They will be hosting the 38th annual beach cleanup at 10:30 a.m. on May 2, starting at Beach 134th Street. Students from P.S. 114 will be joining, and all are welcome. On May 25, from about 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., there will be a youth rugby tournament and barbecue at Fort Tilden in honor of late Firefighter Patrick Brady. All are welcome to stop by and help support the newly formed Patrick Brady Foundation. As we approach the 250th birthday of America, King reminded everyone to speak to their kids about patriotism, the history of the country, and freedom. The BHPOA will be holding a garden and flower contest soon for Belle Harbor homes.

King touched on an issue of severely damaged roads with potholes in the neighborhood, especially Rockway Beach Boulevard. He advised people to keep calling 311 to make complaints. They have also contacted elected officials, the NYPD, and the comptroller’s office about safety concerns. The DOT has agreed to conduct a study on the condition of the roads, which can take 90 days, but King is hoping more immediate action is taken. Phyllis Inserillo of Councilwoman Joann Ariola’s office said they’re going to have DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn come out to look at the area. She said they believe the bus route change to Rockaway Beach Boulevard may have contributed to extra weight on the road, and it’s not built for it. A repaving is scheduled for the fall, but they’re hoping something can be done sooner.

King also spoke about the wooden jetties that have still not been removed. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) did not complete this job in their original contract, and it’s likely not going to get done in the current contract. NYC Parks says USACE are the only ones who can do the job. It may be done in the contract to build ADA ramps in Belle Harbor and Neponsit, as it’s a requirement for the awardee of that job contract. New York City must fund the removal. Inserillo said the funding has been committed, and the NYC Parks Commissioner is going to come and look into it. A Request for Proposals must go out, but the Mayor’s Office is currently revamping the way contacts are chosen through this process, so it could take longer as the RFP process is changed.

Board Member Ed Lynch spoke about some updates within the Episcopal Health System (EHS) before introducing EHS CEO Don Morrish and COO Karen Paige to provide more updates. Dr. Morrish said a few months ago, EHS received a $27M grant to redo the emergency unit, to upgrade the facility from 16 beds to 21 for intensive care. EHS recently opened the John Walsh Ambulatory Pavilion at 19-20 Brookhaven Ave., which Dr. Morrish joked looks like an IKEA. It brings back an oncology program to the peninsula, which was lost when Peninsula Hospital closed 14 years ago. Radiology is now offered in the basement of the building. They also offer behavioral health, primary care, endoscopy, endocrinology and obstetrics there. A ribbon cutting will be held on May 1, and all are welcome. EHS said they’ve changed their clinical program and are proud to be the only program in the state that has not had any hospital-acquired infections in more than a year. He also spoke about their facility on Beach 105th Street, which offers primary care, specialty care and women’s services.

Paige said Dr. Morrish had set a course of revitalizing the organization, and they’ve been reaching goals for quality care.  She said they’ll offer tours for anyone who wants to see the new Walsh Ambulatory Pavilion, and spoke about the cancer services there, saying people now have a convenient location to get these services. In an answer to questions, Paige said they see about 150 patients on a daily basis in the emergency room, and if there is a service they can’t offer beyond stabilizing a patient, they work closely with Mount Sinai and Northwell Health to transfer people there or to another facility. Dr. Morrish advised people to go to St. John’s if they experience a heart attack or stroke, as they’re able to stabilize patients. In his 14 years of working for the hospital, Dr. Morrish said it isn’t the place it used to be, as so many changes have been made. “It’s the best place ever. It’s nice, clean, and headed in the right direction. It’s tremendously different from where it was 14 years ago,” he said.

Inserillo of Councilwoman Ariola’s office provided some additional updates. Ariola has been reassigned as chair of the Fire and Management Committee and is dealing with the budget hearing for the FDNY and EMS. They were just made aware of the price increase for ambulances and are hoping to have the budget soon to look into why this is being increased. Ariola will be meeting with the NYPD Commissioner on Monday, as they were told the city is only 250 police below head count, but that’s not being seen on the streets in Rockaway, so they want to make sure the 100th Precinct is getting officers. Ariola will also be having a meeting with the DOT Commissioner to discuss the road issues and is hoping results come beyond words.

Inserillo said DSNY has resumed giving fines for those who don’t compost, so she advised people to put their compost bins out on recycling night. The office is looking into which communities have been receiving fines, to see if it’s being done fairly. By June 1, everyone will need the new NYC Trash Bin, and they are only available at Home Depot at this point. Inserillo spoke about a scam targeting seniors, where someone in a car sees someone outside their home, and they pull up asking for directions to a church so they can pray for a loved one in a hospital. They then get out of the car and tell victims how upset they are, go in for a hug, and slip off the person’s jewelry, replacing it with a fake piece. She said it’s happened six times in Howard Beach and at least once in Rockaway. She advised people to be aware of such scams and not to let anyone touch them.

An electronics recycling event will be held in Howard Beach soon, but there will be one on the peninsula in September. On April 27 at 6:30 p.m., they’re hosting a Night at the Opera at Russo’s on the Bay. The concert is free, but reservations are required by calling Councilwoman Ariola’s office. The Beach 116th Summer Kickoff will be from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. on May 31, and on June 20, they will have a fireworks show at Beach 94th Street for America 250.

Board member Mark Viola spoke about some beach issues and introduced NYC Parks Chief of Operations Phil Sparacio, Chief of Special Programs Bonnie Williams, and Rockaway Deputy Administrator Khalil Bratton to go into details about the summer plan for beach maintenance and lifeguards.

Sparacio has been working for Parks since 1982, with the last three years as Chief of Borough Operations. He spoke briefly about the Army Corps work, saying it’s been a challenge, as the project was supposed to be finished two years ago, but they took off last summer and started late this year. But NYC Parks started preparations for this upcoming beach season in October to get ahead of issues. He said for three straight weeks, they have crews addressing the issues with getting over the dunes from Beach 126th to 149th. Working with 36 extra crew members, Sparacio said they hope to have all of the dune work and mobimat work completed in the next two weeks so people can access the beach. He expressed that this summer will be a challenge for Parks overall due to FIFA World Cup events, America 250 and Sail 250, as up to two million new visitors are expected in NYC. This year’s beach season is also 16 weeks long, the longest it’s been in decades.

Bratton said in December, Rockaway received new supervisors, including two leads and three others, who will be onboarded this summer. On April 12, they received another six supervisors for the summer detail. They have three seasonal crews to operate heavy machinery like beach rakes, front-end loaders and bobcats. They’ve started to receive four City Park Workers for beach and boardwalk maintenance and 17 City Seasonal Aides who will tend to the restrooms and other park spaces. Parks identified nine areas uptown with heavy sand buildup, around the future dune crossover areas. They are working to clear the sand and have done five of those blocks so far. To try to keep the sand in place, they are experimenting with different methods such as snow fencing, wind screens, green tennis wind screens, mobimat screening and burlap, to see what works best to keep the sand from moving while they await the more permanent crossovers. They’ve also been working to remove sand from the boardwalk, which they’ve made big progress on with the help of machines and shovels, and they’re now focusing on the baffle wall areas uptown, with a crew focused on maintaining the mobimats running along the walls from east to west. The crew started at Beach 126th and is making its ways uptown, currently at Beach 133rd Street.

They will soon be adding trash corrals to the beach and then garbage cans to give the new supervisors a sense of how the beach runs. They started on Beach 67th and are working their way up. There is a plan to add more garbage cans, doubling them from two to four at each beach entrance, and they’re hoping to collect trash faster to avoid a buildup. There will also be one or two garbage cans at each baffle wall.

The beach operations shifts start on May 3 with a main shift from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. for sand maintenance, 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. for grass cutting, mobimat crews and other operations, and 12 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. for boardwalk staff tending to restrooms, as they’re trying to keep staff on later to clean the restrooms. There is also a 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. shift for garbage pickup. In past years, they’ve had eight to 10 people on the garbage pickup crew, but they hope to have 12 to 16 this year. One crew will be assigned uptown from Beach 126th to 149th, utilizing gators to better access the trash cans.

Someone had a question about adding more garbage cans or having more supervision uptown due to young people drinking at night and leaving behind garbage and damaging the dunes. Sparacio said he’ll bring it up to police to make sure there’s patrol from Beach 126th to 149th. Sparacio explained Parks only receives 0.47% of the entire city budget, so he is hoping this can be increased to 1% so they can do more. Last year, Rockaway Beach had 3.7 million visitors. Community Board 14 has 49% of the city’s parkland due to the beach. If people have issues with mobimats or trash or other maintenance problems, Sparacio said to call 718-520-5907 and leave a message.

Bonnie Williams has overseen the lifeguard program for the last three years and spoke about updates. They have made changes to the way they recruit, certify and train lifeguards, and they’ve been trying to boost morale. They began recruitment efforts in October, sending out flyers, email blasts and going to swim meets and public and private schools to spread the word. Training began in February, with training facilities and qualifying tests in all five boroughs. Far Rockaway High School’s pool is under renovation, so they were able to use the YMCA to hold some qualifying tests and have been using Grover Cleveland High School in Queens for training classes until the end of June. Recertification efforts have begun with CPR classes and testing. They’ve had 450 return guards take CPR so far. Williams said numbers are improving as they had 1,087 lifeguards for the city last year, as opposed to 930 the year prior. They are already thinking about recruitment for next year.

Late last year, Parks piloted an orange gator vehicle, which greatly improved lifesaving efforts, as they’re able to use it to transport lifeguards from other beaches to search for missing swimmers, and they can transport victims to EMS services on the boardwalk or street. Due to its success, Borough President Donovan Richards has funded another lifeguard gator for Rockaway. Lifeguards have been training with the FDNY and their drone program. They will get throw ropes to make rescues off of jetties and may get a Dolphin, or an autonomous remote-controlled buoy to help lifeguards get out past riptides to make quick saves. They will also be buying masks and fins for lifeguards to use during underwater grid searches for missing swimmers, and they’re looking into an Aqua Eye piece to perform sonar-based scans of the water to try to locate missing swimmers.

Williams said when there are heatwaves, they recently started keeping lifeguards in shacks during after-hours on beaches to respond to emergencies. They started this last year, and it resulted in 26 after-hours rescues, so they plan to continue this. For this year, they got 15 new lifeguard chairs, in addition to 10 last year, and there are plans to buy more after this fiscal year. On Tuesday, they’re having a meeting with the NY State Marine Patrol to discuss Beach 17th Street, where there is marine traffic like jet skis and boats, and a meeting with other partner agencies to discuss better communication for instances where there is dangerous marine life around or missing swimmers. After holding a panel with lifeguards to work on morale improvements, they had an 81% retention rate last year. They will also be rolling out uniform redesigns, such as men’s shorts with pockets that can fit a pocket mask and female two-piece triathlon bathing suits, at the request of the lifeguards.

There were questions about how many lifeguards there will be this summer, but as training is still ongoing, Williams said she won’t have a better idea until mid-May. She said they will try to rotate open beaches in the summer to make coverage more fair in the wake of an ongoing lifeguard shortage. She explained that Rockaway gets 50% of the entire lifeguard staff for the city, as there are eight beaches and several pools to staff. Asked if the shortage was due to money, Williams said it’s not money-related. The lifeguard shortage is a nationwide issue, and they’ve created a task force with other organizations and nonprofits to discuss ways to improve recruitment and found that, due to things like travel baseball and volleyball, kids are not as dedicated to swimming in the ways that they used to be. Parks has started learn-to-swim programs for second graders and offers swim improvement programs to better prepare mediocre swimmers to qualify for the lifeguard program. Asked if firefighters can double as lifeguards, it was explained that the FDNY does not provide waivers for firefighters to have two city jobs. Asked if hours could be staggered with shifts from 10 to 6 p.m. and 12 to 8 p.m., so beaches can be open later, Williams said that comes down to the city budget, and city council would have to approve the funding for it, and they’d need adequate staff to cover it.

Finally, Doug Meyer let everyone know about the West End Temple market coming up on May 17. They will have two rooms full of vendors as well as live entertainment by Aerial Acoustics and Barry Waller.