REGION : State Vows to Maintain Beaches Despite Cuts
State beaches, including those in Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach, will not go without lifeguards and maintenance crews, a state official said Wednesday.
Patricia Megason, deputy director of the state Department of Parks and Recreation, was responding to a vote by Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday that called for county lifeguards and maintenance crews to abandon beaches owned by the state beginning May 2. City and county beaches patrolled by the county would not be affected.
County and state officials have been arguing for years over who should pay for guarding and maintaining eight state-owned beaches in the county. Negotiations, now focusing on a transfer of ownership from the state to the county, will continue, officials say.
“Yesterday’s action was a surprise,” Megason said Wednesday. “We’re not prepared to jeopardize public safety, so we are prepared to step forward.”
But some local officials were not comforted by the prospect. Manhattan Beach Councilman Jack Cunningham, a former county lifeguard, worried that the state cannot provide enough well-trained lifeguards.
But Redondo Beach Councilman Joseph Dawidziak said the county services are overpriced, and the city would do fine providing its own lifeguards.
It costs the county $4.3 million to maintain the state-owned beaches; county officials want the state to contribute about $2 million.
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