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County staffing hours called into question after St. Andrews lifeguards rescue swimmers when park is unsupervised

Verda Morus removes warning flags at the end of his shift in mid-April at Gulfstream Park. Palm Beach County park policy requires lifeguards to leave after posted times even if visitors remain amid poor conditions. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

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By Brian Biggane

Gulfstream Park and the St. Andrews Club sit side-by-side between Briny Breezes and Gulf Stream, but their relationship is not exactly neighborly. 

Palm Beach County lifeguards patrol the park’s beach daily from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., but as spring moves toward summer another two to three hours of daylight remain when the beach sits unsupervised. As a result, St. Andrews’ guards on several occasions have become the difference between life and death.

“I just think they don’t really care about what’s going on out here,” St. Andrews General Manager Robert Grassi said of the county’s Parks and Recreation Department. St. Andrews head lifeguard Connie Case added that “100%” of her staff’s rescues have come at Gulfstream Park.

Grassi said on March 8 his guards left their posts to run the approximately 200 yards north along the beach to rescue two swimmers in the early evening. 

And on Nov. 10, 2024, 15-year-old Prestyn Smith died when he got caught in a rip current around 7 a.m. Guards were on site but had not yet reported to the tower. They saved his mother and brother, but his body was not discovered until hours later.

St. Andrews Club lifeguards have responded to save swimmers during the unsupervised hours at Gulfstream Park. Coastal Star graphic/Google Map

Since January, the issue has been the purview of John Meskiel, the county’s newly promoted chief of Ocean Rescue who has worked for the county for 38 years, many of them as a lifeguard. He oversees the county’s 14 public, guarded beaches from Jupiter to Boca Raton.

“It’s a dangerous beach, obviously, especially when there are no lifeguards there,” Meskiel said of Gulfstream.

Grassi emailed Meskiel with his concerns back in March and Meskiel largely agreed, saying, “He’s brought up things we’ve been saying for decades. As with the case with everything, it comes down to the dollar.”

One antidote, of course, would be to lengthen the lifeguards’ hours. Municipal guards at Boca Raton and Delray Beach stay until 6:30 p.m. during daylight saving time, though both start at 9 a.m.

Meskiel has considered proposing his guards work 12-hour days starting May 1, but recognizes that may not be workable.

“How do we work that out with the union?” he asked. “How does that work out with my staffing levels?”

Guards currently work four 10-hour shifts a week; adding two hours would work out to three 12-hour shifts, with Meskiel suggesting possibly another four hours of training.

Morus removes cones and signage at the beach at Gulfstream Park at the end of his shift, even as beachgoers remain. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

On a recent afternoon at Gulfstream, lifeguard Tyler McGrew shook his head at that idea. “I wouldn’t be a fan of that,” he said. “We’re under union contract, so that would have to be renegotiated. Unless there was a monetary incentive involved, I don’t believe the majority of the guards would go for it.”

The county continues to grow in population at a rapid pace, so more residents means more staffing is required. Meskiel said he will be adding 10 positions this spring and he hopes five more in the summer countywide. With veteran guards earning about $80,000 per year and getting another $10,000 or more in benefits, that amounts to more stress on the county’s $80 million-plus annual parks and recreation budget.

Another effort to improve safety at the beaches involves signage. Every beach park has a chalkboard near the guard tower advising visitors of tides, sea temperature, winds and the like. Guards invariably also post colored flags warning of rip currents and sea life such as jellyfish.

Meskiel has gone even further, having lifeguards post signs and red flags on PVC poles near the beach warning of dangers after guards leave for the day. “But I would say 80% of the time they’ve been vandalized by the next morning,” he said. “Most of those are hanging in a dorm room or man cave somewhere.”

Both Meskiel and Grassi expressed a desire to have the park locked and parking lots emptied when lifeguards leave. 

However, Gulfstream has several barbecue stations along with showers and bathrooms, so visitors often linger up to dark and even later, likely making that unworkable.

The bottom line, Meskiel said, is for visitors to read the chalkboard at the entrance, and even more important, a sign just below the guard station warning of the dangers of rip currents.

“It’s rip current awareness,” he said. “That sign actually shows you what a rip current is, how you can get stuck in it and how you can escape it. If you’re going to take the chance of swimming in an unguarded beach, then that’s the stuff you need to know.”