Lifeguard shortage leads to Fogland Beach closures

While Grinnell’s Beach is already shut down because of construction to the adjacent Stone Bridge abutment, Fogland Beach in the south end of town is considered closed nearly half the week.

TIVERTON — A second beach in Tiverton has been closed this summer, this time because of a shortage of lifeguards.

While Grinnell’s Beach is already shut down because of construction to the adjacent Stone Bridge abutment, Fogland Beach in the south end of town is considered closed nearly half the week.

The town can’t get enough lifeguards for Fogland three days a week, even though the pay is $14 an hour.

Complaints are being made to town officials that there are no bathroom facilities when the beach is closed for lack of a lifeguard.

The beach is still open to anyone who wants to drive onto it, but when there is no lifeguard, the town can’t charge an entry fee and has been keeping the restrooms closed on those days.

Town Councilman Joseph Perry, who is the council liaison to the Recreation Commission, suggested the town rent a portable toilet for some $90 a month.

That option would be cheaper than paying a gate attendant some $65 a day to open and close the restrooms in the bathhouse when there is no lifeguard on duty and no entry fees can be collected.

Council President Denise deMedeiros said she offered to go sit at the beach recently to open and close the bathhouse.

The town now employs two lifeguards who work Mondays, Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays and holidays, Perry said.

When a lifeguard is on duty, the charge for non-residents to enter the beach on weekdays is $10 a day. It’s $15 on weekends and holidays, and more for recreational vehicles. Town residents are not charged.

“People are upset because there are no bathrooms,” Perry said.

Not only has some vandalism taken place, but Perry said there is feces outside the bathhouse.

Perry said the town needs a couple more lifeguards and has reached out to a local Boy Scout troop that has training for lifeguards, and hopes a young man in town who is in line for a certification test later this month follows through on it because he will have a job as soon as he passes the test.