Ke‘e to keep lifeguards
Kaua‘i has many challenges, many struggles, and its share of people suffering. In order to keep myself from being defeated by all this, I am one who makes sure I take a moment to enjoy the flowers when they come our way.
One beauty did just come our way, namely our mayor and our county administrators made the commitment and the decision to continue lifeguard coverage at Ke‘e Beach through 6/30/22. There was fear that the coverage would end on 6/30/21, because of COVID-related budget constraints both on the state level and the county level.
I want to keep this short, and I won’t spell out the details of why this decision is so special. Suffice it to say that there will be people alive in the next year who wouldn’t have been alive if not for this decision.
Many thanks to all of our county administrators who made this happen, namely our mayor and his staff. Our county councilmembers, who have to sign off on all budget decisions; Fire Chief Goble and Ocean Safety Supervisor Vierra, who put together the data and the statistics which guided the administrators to their decision; and, of course, our lifeguards themselves, who do the day-to-day grunt work at Ke‘e.
Aloha.
Monty Downs, M.D., Secretary, Kaua‘i Lifeguard Association
Agree wholeheartedly!
So let me get this straight, the state continues to take ALL of the TAT from the County, refuses to pay for lifeguards at a dangerous STATE BEACH while raking in fees, and now we the people of Kauai County have to pick up that additional lifeguard expense too?? Time for some added tourist taxes or cuts to HTA to pay for these expenses before our taxes go up or our services get cut to pay for the “visitor experience”. I love our lifeguards and they do an awesome job at Ke’e, but enough is enough with this state.