TROUTMAN Competition from higher-paying swimming pools in Mecklenburg County and gated Lake Norman subdivisions has left Lake Norman State Park without lifeguards since 2002, a state parks official said.

"This has always been a problem," said Charlie Peek, spokesman for the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation in Raleigh.

The state used to budget money for lifeguards at the park but officials had difficulty recruiting them, Peek said.

The park is off Interstate 77 Exit 42 in Iredell County, 10 miles south of Statesville and 32 miles north of Charlotte. Its public swimming area is the only one on North Carolina's largest lake.

Mecklenburg County banned swimming at its parks in 1977, including on Lake Norman, Lake Wylie and Mountain Island Lake, after three adults and a child drowned at McDowell Park on Lake Wylie.

State parks officials said it's uncertain whether having a lifeguard on duty at Lake Norman State Park's swimming beach would have made a difference in the death of a 22-year-old man on July 2. It was the first death at a designated swimming area in the park since 1996, when a 32-year-old Statesville man died of accidental drowning in the park's former swimming area.

Officials said they're still awaiting autopsy results in the July 2 death. The man had been missing from his church group for up to 2 1/2 hours before he was found under 6 feet of water.

The death was initially called a drowning, but Lake Norman State Park Superintendent Casey Rhinehart has said he'll wait for the autopsy results to rule out the chance that the man suffered a medical emergency.

Swimmers at the park Friday said a lifeguard or volunteer watching from shore would make the beach safer.

"If a parent goes to the bathroom and a kid stays in the water, a lifeguard could be there to save them,'' said Jacob Myers, 11, of Statesville.

Bill Perry, 43, of Troutman said there's no excuse for swimmers not wearing one of the many life jackets available on the beach for free, but volunteers watching over the beach would still be welcome. "They don't have to be lifeguards," said Perry, before building a sand castle with his three children visiting from West Virginia.

In the eastern part of the state, Jordan Lake in Apex, Kerr Lake in Henderson and Falls Lake in Wake Forest each have several swimming beaches but no lifeguards, Peek said. Hammocks Beach and other parks on the coast have lifeguards and find it easier recruiting them because of the popularity of the shore, he said.

Lake James State Park in Burke and McDowell counties also has lifeguards at the swimming area it opened in September and has had no trouble recruiting them, Peek said. Competition isn't as intense there as in more urban settings, he said.

Lake James charges the public a small fee when lifeguards are on duty. The fee doesn't generate enough money to staff lifeguards at other times, Peek said. The swimming area remains open at other times during regular park hours, but people swim at their own risk.

The state has upped lifeguard pay to $9.36 an hour - and $9.67 an hour for chief lifeguards - to lure more hires. A state swimming beach typically needs one chief lifeguard and five other lifeguards to remain adequately staffed, with two on duty at all times, Peek said.

Carolina Pool Management pays from $7.25 for starting lifeguards to $11 or $12 for more experienced pool managers at the 45 pools it manages in private communities south of I-85 in Charlotte, Union County and parts of South Carolina, human resources director Denise Carlton said.

The YMCA of Greater Charlotte pays lifeguards an average of $8 an hour, with pay ranging from minimum wage to about $10 for the most highly skilled, spokeswoman Molly Thompson said. The system faced a shortage a couple of years ago, possibly because youths had many other job choices, she said.

But even opening a larger, cleaner swimming area at Lake Norman State Park in 2005 failed to lure enough lifeguards there, Peek said. Staff Writer Ann Doss Helms, Staff Researcher Maria David and Observer archives contributed.