Panama City Beach drownings: City adds 6 more full-time lifeguards for Gulf of Mexico beach

PANAMA CITY BEACH — City Council members on Thursday took multiple steps to improve beach safety.

In a special meeting at 4 p.m., officials directed staff to look into five ways the city might better protect beachgoers using approximately $360,000 that will be allocated to Panama City Beach by the Bay County Tourist Development Council.

In a regular meeting immediately after the special meeting, they then approved a measure to hire six new full-time beach lifeguards.

"We invite visitors to come enjoy our beaches," Mayor Stuart Tettemer said. "We should be doing what we can in order to keep them safe. The Gulf is a wilderness. It is not a pool. It is not a lake. It is not a creek. It is a wilderness, and it is different than the bodies of water many of our visitors are use to dealing with."

According to Tettemer, the TDC and Bay County Commission still are working to finalize the money that will be allocated to PCB to help with beach safety. He said the five ideas proposed Thursday are:

• Offset the cost on local businesses to participate in a public-private partnership where city lifeguards are assigned to patrol the coast behind the businesses. Boardwalk Beach Resort is the only business to participate so far.
• Create a Beach Ambassador Program that would put more people on the coast to help educate beachgoers. Members of the program would not be lifeguard certified, but instead just inform swimmers on dangerous surf conditions.
• See what it would take to require beachgoers to have a flotation device when they enter the Gulf of Mexico under single-red-flag conditions. It currently is only illegal in Bay County under penalty of $500 fines to enter the water when double-red flags fly.
• Incorporate imagining technology along the coast to identify struggling swimmers.
• Install flotation devices along the coast that beachgoers could use to help save a struggling swimmer if a lifeguard is not in the area.

Tettemer said these ideas would act as another "ring of protection" to work alongside lifeguards. With the additional positions approved Thursday, PCB will have more than a dozen full-time lifeguards

The meetings agenda notes the city was able to afford the new full-time positions by doing away with its seasonal lifeguard positions.

More on the drownings:Fatal vacations: A look at the 7 tourists who have drowned in Bay County so far this year

Thursday's decisions come in the wake of seven beach drownings that have occurred off Bay County beaches so far this year. Of these, three happened within the city limits of Panama City Beach. They were on March 27 near Beach Access 36, June 20 near Beach Access 54 and June 24 near Beach Access 54.

The four others happened off unincorporated beaches. Three were on June 21 near Beach Access 12, and was one on June 23 near Beach Access 96.

"I'm looking forward to having more lifeguarded beaches," Tettemer said. "Enhancing public safety (and) doing what we can to keep our visitors safe is important for all of us. We invite the country and frequently the rest of the world to come visit our absolutely gorgeous beaches.

"We need to be pushing forward and making them as safe as possible."