There were no drownings off the beaches of South Haven in 2023.
South Haven City Manager Kate Hosier presented a beach safety report to the city council this week. She said with the city hiring six beach enforcement attendants in 2023, much was done to keep the beaches safe. The attendants were kept busy.
“The beach enforcement attendants were responsible for monitoring the lake conditions, changing the flags, sending out alerts, updating the website…and new this year, we had them enforce applicable provisions of the South Haven Code of Ordinances,” Hosier said.
Hosier said the South Haven Police Department would ticket people when they wouldn’t listen to the beach attendants. The most common offenses were pier jumping and walking out on the pier when it was closed.
Hosier said the attendants worked with SHAES on emergency situations.
“The beach enforcement attendants responded to an assisted SHAES with 25 beach incidents. We had 20 at South Beach, we had five at North Beach. We had one swimmer in distress at North Beach, and SHAES did respond. We had two false alarms for swimmers in distress. We had many, many medical calls.”
Hosier noted the Rotary this year gave a $13,000 grant to the city for beach safety. It was used to install life ring cabinets and AEDs near the beach.
She called it a successful season.
