COCOA BEACH, Fla. – A new plan to protect swimmers is now in motion. For the last month, some worried beaches with no lifeguards had become even more dangerous after emergency flotation devices were suddenly put into storage.
Two people drowned at one of those unguarded beaches in April.
Now, even as a legal battle rages on in court over who owns the lifesaving rings, Cocoa Beach is moving forward with installing new emergency rescue stations without the group, which says it had the idea in the first place.
Drown Zero dismantled the rescue stations when Cocoa Beach’s Rotary Club sued the nonprofit.
Then, Cocoa Beach announced a new plan to get new flotation devices, but one that doesn’t include Drown Zero.
The new agreement is just between the city and the Rotary Club, which on Tuesday told your Cocoa Beach Community Correspondent James Sparvero it started installing new poles on the beach to replace where the old stations used to be.
“Do I think we’re getting kicked to the curb, I do,” Drown Zero vice president Scott Widerman told Sparvero. “I don’t know how the Rotary is of the belief that they have the only and exclusive rights to have these types of stations because that would be an illegal monopoly.”
Beachgoer Carla Phillipy told Sparvero that arguing over who owns the rings shouldn’t matter.
“I don’t understand the debate about the rings,” she said. “Why don’t we just focus on the people instead of who did it and who should get credit?”
Sparvero asked another person at the beach, Tanner Harnag, if he was excited that new flotation devices were going to be brought in.
“I think it would be good for the people around here if they were to come back,” he said. “I think that would be a positive thing.”
The Rotary Club said once it finishes installing all the poles, and then it will attach the new flotation devices.
We’ll update you as soon as they’re ready.