The following letter to Park Watch is from Chip tenBensel, who has had experience as a lifeguard, a water safety instructor and a camp aquatics director. His letter has been condensed:
WHAT IS A LIFE WORTH?
On Saturday, June 9, I was going to sail with a friend down at Lake Calhoun. Earlier that morning, the morning regatta had been canceled due to high winds. When we got to the lake, the winds were still too strong for us to go Out. Around the lake, there were at least three sailboats having trouble with the wind, two sailboats with their masts snapped off and one that was flipped. There were kayakers, people in canoes, and people in paddle boats that were having a difficult time with the strong winds that were funneling down through the bridge by the Lake Calhoun Refectory. I wondered why it was taking the water safety patrol so long to aid the sailors and people on the lake that were having trouble with the wind. I asked my friend “Where is the water safety?” He said there were none; that because of budget cuts, the Minneapolis Park Board had cut the funding for water safety patrols on all the lakes in Minneapolis. If this is true, the “City of Lakes” is in trouble.
On the beautiful warm and sunny days, the lakes are filled with people enjoying the water from the novice to the experienced. It is the water safety patrol’s responsibility to monitor the lake activity and respond as
necessary. I grew up going to most of the lakes in Minneapolis and in an emergency, the water safety patrol was at potentially dangerous situations minutes before any Minneapolis fire stations responded to the call.
There is a firehouse on the northwest side of Lake Calhoun, but the time it takes to call 911 and have the EMS system activated is longer than the time the water safety patrol could possibly respond. This could mean the difference between life and death, because the amount of time a person can survive without oxygen is around four minutes. This is not a commentary on the fire and rescue in the state, but a sad commentary on the lack of the Park Board’s responsibility to make our lakes and beaches safer places.
So the Minneapolis Park board wants to save some money. If there is a lawsuit, the resources wasted will far outweigh the costs of a water safety patrol and of endangering the lives of those from aquatics accidents. Even the best swimmers have known to drown in the lakes. Without any water safety patrols, we are only to tarnish Minneapolis’ fine reputation of the City of Lakes.
Does the Minneapolis Park and Recreation care?
Chip tenBensel
Minneapolis
[email protected]
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