Many of the seven candidates for Lauderdale-by-the-Sea’s March election say they support making some changes for beach safety after a girl’s death in the sand, but they favor different initiatives moving forward.
Three Town Commission spots are open in the March 19 election in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea — for Seat 4 in District 2; Seat 3 in District 1; as well as the mayor’s seat. Kenneth Brenner, a District 2 candidate, supports hiring lifeguards. His opponent in the race, Richard DeNapoli, wants more beach patrols.
Howard Goldberg, a District 1 candidate, wants a lifeguard stationed by the pier, which is the most frequented part of the beach. Ann Marchetti, a mayoral candidate, wants a combination of signs, lifeguards at two busy spots of beach, and more beach patrols for the rest.
Other candidates say residents should drive any policy and they want to get the pulse of the community before there are changes. They are mayoral candidates Edmund Malkoon and Buz Oldaker, as well as District 1 candidate John Graziano.
Whether the town should have lifeguards has been discussed for decades, and it again rose as a public safety concern on Feb. 20 when 7-year-old Sloan Mattingly was buried alive in sand. Sloan and her 9-year-old brother, Maddox, were building a sand hole, and both were trapped when the hole collapsed in on itself. Maddox survived.
Ocean rescue experts told the South Florida Sun Sentinel last month that Sloan’s death might have been prevented if the beach was staffed with lifeguards. Lifeguards are typically instructed to tell beachgoers about the risks of digging in the sand, and to stop people from digging any deeper than either knee- to waist-height, or about 2 feet. The hole the two children were digging was about 3 feet, officials say.
Patrolling beaches
According to a town report attached to a recent meeting agenda, Pompano Beach Fire Rescue currently patrols the beach twice per shift; the Broward Sheriff’s Office also patrols, totaling just over 520 hours last year; and volunteers with the town’s Citizen Observer Patrol also monitored the beach for an additional 126 hours.
A Lauderdale-by-the-Sea spokeswoman said Monday “both Pompano Beach Fire Rescue and BSO use beach-appropriate vehicles to patrol on the beach.”
A group of volunteers patrol Lauderdale-by-the-Sea’s beach as civilian monitors. And the Broward Sheriff’s Office patrol the beach with ATVs usually in the mornings on a regular patrol, with increased surveillance during Spring Break.
“Step it up even more,” DeNapoli suggested.
Of the three candidates said they will make a decision only after getting more feedback from the voters, Oldaker said one of the reasons the town has been reluctant to hire lifeguards was because they enjoyed “the freedom to go to the beach without that structure. A lot of people come from the north, like the Jersey Shore, and there are rules and regulations every stage of the way,” he said, down to whether they can have coolers or require season passes.
In Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, “people want ‘small town,’ go to the beach at your leisure.”
The answer to the lifeguard question will be up to residents, he said. “I’m all about the tradition of our town and the culture of our town,” Oldaker said. Still, he said, “It’s 2024. If people want to change that, I want to represent them on the commission.”
That also includes Malkoon, who said there are downsides to lifeguards since it could “attract people (to the beach) that think our entire beach is covered and it probably won’t be,” he said.
“Maybe this is a message, because of this tragedy maybe it was a sign that it’s something we need to look at,” Malkoon said. “I’m not going to say yes or no until I have all the facts and the costs.”
Said Graziano: “It should be reflective of what the people want and need.”
He said he also wants to weigh the results of a pending town investigation.
Others said they want more beach patrols, including Goldberg.
“I don’t believe the community wants” lifeguards, he said, but still, for the sake of public safety, he would like a lifeguard at the pier, which is the most heavily concentrated area. He would like to see more beach patrols for the rest of the beach, but says deputies would be slowed down to respond to an emergency because of their “mobility issues” unloading their boots and gun.
A combination of a “lifeguard or two” plus beach patrols, “that to me would be a good compromise,” Goldberg said.
Marchetti spent eight years as a lifeguard when she was a teenager at a state park in Maryland. She said a fair “compromise” could be increased beach patrols, more signs alerting swimmers of the risks of not just swimming alone, but of digging in the sand, and lifeguards only in two of the busiest sections of beach, at a park and at the pier.
DeNapoli wants to see increased beach patrols, especially as Spring Break gets underway, but also wants to see the outcome of the Broward Sheriff’s Office investigation before final decisions are made.
Brenner wants lifeguards along the beach, starting off in the most populated areas. “Public safety is a top priority of any community,” he said.
The election
Mayor Chris Vincent cannot run again because of term limits. Commissioners are not permitted to serve more than two four-year terms and the mayor’s seat is capped at three two-year terms. Vincent served all 14 years.
So three people are now vying to take his place. That includes two familiar faces: incumbent Commissioners Malkoon and Oldaker, and political newcomer Marchetti is in the fray.
With Malkoon now in the mayor’s race, two people want to fill his shoes for a commission seat in Seat 3, District 1: Goldberg and Graziano.
And with Oldaker of Seat 4, District 2 also in the mayor’s race, two people want his job: Brenner and DeNapoli.
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