‘Totally unacceptable’: Popular public beach at Lake Norman to remain closed for now
Families who’ve enjoyed Mecklenburg County’s only public swimming beach on Memorial Day weekend in recent years got splashed with a bucket of ice cold water on Tuesday:
Due to a lifeguard shortage, the county-run Ramsey Creek Park beach on Lake Norman will remain closed “until further notice,” county Park and Recreation officials said. They called the closing “temporary” but didn’t say how long that could mean.
Despite raising pay and recruiting throughout the year, the county has filled just 86 of 247 available lifeguard jobs, according to a county news release.
Charlotte-area beach lovers who want to stay local over the holiday weekend will have to do what they always did before the Ramsey Creek beach opened in Cornelius in 2016: Truck it up to the swimming beach at Lake Norman State Park in Troutman, nearly 40 miles from uptown via Interstate 77.
State park officials are “98% certain” they have enough lifeguards to staff this weekend and through the summer, a woman who answered the phone at the park office told The Charlotte Observer.
The beach in Troutman will still stay open on the off-chance not enough lifeguards are hired, she said. It would just be “swim at your own risk,” she said.
With lifeguards on duty, admission will be $6 for adults and $4 for children.
The scene was far more bleak 20 miles to the south at the beach in the 43.7-acre Ramsey Creek Park on Tuesday, where a locked gate barred access.
Over the past five years, Mecklenburg Park and Rec established free training and learn-to-swim programs for would-be lifeguards.
The county also raised the minimum wage for lifeguards to $15 an hour, is offering $500 signing bonuses, and sent recruiters to CMS high schools and others in surrounding counties — still to little avail, officials said.
Reaction to beach closing
County officials blamed everything from more part-time job choices to “declining access to swim training for potential applicants.”
Those explanations failed to appease some Lake Norman-area elected officials.
“Totally unacceptable,” state Rep. John Bradford said Tuesday about the closure.
“Meck County is flush with cash with federal money from the pandemic,” the Cornelius Republican posted on Facebook in response to a WSOC-TV report about the beach closure. “They are running well above the state’s mandated required reserves.
“If there is a lifeguard shortage then pay more to recruit them,” Bradford posted. “Things have been closed long enough.”
On Twitter, Huntersville town commissioner Stacy Phillips called the decision “not cool.”
“Before Meck County tries to turn the convo to make it like LKN doesn’t want this beach to open, I’m gonna say this entire situation is complete BS ...,” Phillips posted.
Phillips was referring to years-old complaints by residents near the park of noisy crowds, trespassers, litter and traffic jams.
“This is the ONLY public access to swimming in LKN,” Phillips posted “ .... Hiring ain’t that hard in a niche market.”
Public swimming beach
The national lifeguard shortage is real, B.J. Fisher, spokesman for the Virginia-based American Lifeguard Association, told the Observer.
Tens of thousands of students from Eastern Europe help fill the U.S. lifeguard shortage each summer through the J1 foreign student visa program, Fisher said.
“Because of the pandemic, they’re not coming this year,” he said.
The students also helped fill shortages at the 309,000 public U.S. pools, he said.
Compounding the problem: Last year, “we lost a whole group” of U.S.-born teen lifeguards from being able to recertify,” which is required every two years, Fisher said. “They probably just left,” he said.
“And then we lost a group to come in as new candidates — we need 300,000 a year to come in as new — who don’t necessarily take a job but got trained,” he said.
“And we lost a whole year of swimming lessons to teach kids how to swim,” he said. “So this is going to be a chain reaction for years to come.”
Fisher suggested training more “silver-haired swimmers” to be lifeguards. If they’re swimming laps at your local pool or YMCA, they can be lifeguards, too, he said.
No excuse, resident says
Several Lake Norman-area residents on social media said they agreed with Phillips’ assessment about teens and lifeguarding jobs.
“I find it hard to imagine some kids in between high school and college wouldn’t want that job,” Cassie Fambro of Huntersville said on Twitter.
“A lifeguarding position is prime for HS/College kids,” agreed a woman with the Twitter name Disgruntled Pelican.
Tonya Langhorne of Huntersville called the decision to close Ramsey Creek beach “silly and short sighted.”
“Pay the lifeguard(s) and see increased spending in area businesses,” Langhorne posted on Facebook.
Limited pool operations
Due to the lifeguard shortage, operations at Mecklenburg County pools will be limited, Park and Recreation officials said.
Starting on Saturday, these hours will be in effect:
Double Oaks Family Aquatic Center, 2014 Statesville Ave., Charlotte: 11 a.m.-7 p.m. on opening day, Saturday, May 29; and Sunday, May 30; Monday, May 31; and Tuesday, June 1.
Beginning Saturday, June 5, Double Oaks will be open 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Thursdays and Saturdays.
Mecklenburg County Aquatic Center. Open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Memorial Day; 5:30 a.m.–9:30 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays, with main tank closed 1-4 pm; 11:30 a.m.–9:30 p.m Tuesdays and Thursdays; 5:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m. Fridays; 7:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m. Saturdays; closed Sundays.
Cordelia Pool, 2100 N. Davidson St., Charlotte: Beginning Sunday, June 6, the pool will be open 11 a.m.–7 p.m. Sundays and Tuesdays.
To maintain social distancing, visitors can access the Double Oaks and Cordelia pools during these time slots: 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. 1 1/2 hours of swimming and 30 minutes of cleaning will occur between entry times.
Admission is $2 per person. Tickets are available the same day as your visit, first-come, first-served.
Ray’s Splash Planet on North Sycamore Street remains closed. “Stay safe and be well; we look forward to seeing you once we are able to safely reopen!” its website says. The indoor splash park is a joint venture between the Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools at Irwin Academic Center.
This story was originally published May 25, 2021 at 6:04 PM.