The Seattle City Council tweaked its 2005 budget on May 9 with a hefty $56.2 million infusion. According to the council's communication specialist Jackie O'Ryan, the added funds will "concentrate on enhancing public safety" across the city. An incredibly modest slice - $40,000 - of this budgetary-bonus pie is marked for the restoration of lifeguard services at Pritchard Beach, a South End area swim spot that has hosted lifeguards during the nine-week summer season since 1928.
According to Kathy Whitman, the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department's director of aquatics, the beach, from 1983 until 2002, saw an average of 10,365 visitors splashing off its shores. Assuming the parks department follows the council's recent budgetary marching orders, three to four lifeguards will be keeping an eye on swimmers when the season opens on June 26.
The lifeguard service was one of two city-run swimming areas slashed from the budget two years ago. Along with Pritchard, the East Green Lake swimming beach, one of two traditionally lifeguard-staffed areas at the popular North End park, was also closed in 2003.
"The secluded nature of the park, I think, is the reason [Pritchard] was closed, and it's the very reason that lifeguards should be reinstated," asserted Pritchard Beach neighborhood resident Leslie Ashbaugh, a mother of an 8 and a 10-year-old. "Kids continue to use the park unsupervised."
Ashbaugh and her friends Valerie Rose and Pat Manuele, fellow Pritchard Beach neighbors, have been spreading awareness around their area about the state of the beach for the past two years. Their efforts became especially focused and organized after hearing from Whitman in December that Green Lake's East Beach was slated to receive city funding to reinstate its lifeguard service.
At the time, the council reportedly didn't even discuss the fate of Pritchard, which, like East Green Lake, was intended to only be temporarily closed in order to shore up a red-ink budget.
Angered at the city's backsliding move on their 2003 promise to reopen Pritchard for the 2005 season, Ashbaugh, Manuele and Rose began literally knocking on their neighbors' doors to gather signatures (140 by Manuele's estimate) and inform folks about the beach's fate.
Manuele, who is a retired King County employee, said most were surprised to learn their local swimming hole would be the only one in the entire city stuck without lifeguards over the summer. When considering the Pritchard bathhouse underwent a major renovation in 1997, such reactions were not unexpected. The facility now features updated restrooms, a lifeguard office and an expansive community meeting room, all closed to the public, except for an occasional meeting in the conference room, since the council deep-sixed the lifeguard program.
With a poor swimming-area visibility from the parking lot and a large drift log bumping up against the shore, Ashbaugh and other nearby beach neighbors have taken to patrolling the area themselves over the past two years.
"It's a disaster waiting to happen," Ashbaugh asserted.
Neglected, again?
"[City officials] count on the fact that there are a lot of populations in this neighborhood that are focusing on survival issues and other basic life issues, and they may not have the confidence, experience or linguistic skills to fight city hall," Rose said. "Luckily there are neighbors who realized this temporary cut in funding [back in 2003] was going to be permanent unless we spoke up."
The city's actions at the beach felt especially brazen when, shortly after the service was pulled in 2003, the lifeguard tower was removed. In its place a sign, in English only, now warns swimmers there are no lifeguards on duty.
Rose noted that the 98118 zip code holds the deepest linguistic diversity of the entire nation, according to the 2000 United States Census. She also pointed out the census revealed Seattle's 98118 zip code holds the highest percentage of kids in the city with 85 percent of them with a non-Anglo-European heritage.
"I think that we're so out of the way [the city officials] think they can ignore us and it will pass," Manuele said. "I think that Southeast Seattle gets forgotten a lot."
Manuele's sentiment was underscored earlier this spring when she heard from councilman Richard Conlin that, even if the council okayed the money for the Pritchard Beach lifeguards, the parks department could decide to use the funds in an entirely different way. With such a move possible, Manuele contacted parks department director Ken Bounds for his assurance that this would not be the case.
"Budget challenges continue to limit what we can do," Bounds answered in his March 29 e-mailed response to Manuele. "Although the mayor has made a strong commitment to Southeast Seattle, the reopening of Pritchard Beach is not included in those plans. Seattle government's decision-making process requires support from both the mayor's office and the city council members."
However, with the council's May 9 supplemental funding approval, the small group of South End activists feel there is cautious cause for celebration, especially with councilmembers Nick Licata, Richard McIver, David Della and Richard Conlin solidly behind their push to revive the South End lifeguard positions.
"[The vote] was a recognition that it was a Draconian measure taken in hard times," said Licata about the council's move to free up $40,000 for the Pritchard lifeguards. "I consider it to be fairly fundamental. I'm really pleased the other members went along. It was one of my top three [budget adjustment] items."
When asked about the amount of influence Manuele, Rose, Ashbaugh and other Pritchard Beach activists had on the council's decision, Licata didn't hesitate to credit the group's persistent, low-grade pressure on city hall to restore funding.
"I think they played a critical role. It wasn't a tidal wave of e-mails and letters, but I would say there was a fair number of reasonable requests for the beach area. [The decision] seemed really unfair," said Licata, who mentioned he has used the beach in the past. "If you look at the [usage] numbers [the lowest out of nine city-owned beaches], that's probably how the parks department justified the closure, but you have to take the geographic situation into account."
Erik Hansen may be reached by e-mailing editor@sdistrictjournal.com[[In-content Ad]]
