Lifeguard tower poses a risk

Mount Maunganui Llifeguard Service general manager Glenn Bradley has told council the lifeguard tower is an unsafe working environment for lifeguards. Photo / Andrew Warner

Mount Maunganui Surf Lifesaving Club is seeking $65,000 from Tauranga City Council to rebuild its leaking and unsafe lifeguard tower.

The club has told councillors the tower is an unsafe working environment for lifeguards and in critical need of rebuilding - costing $130,000.

It was part of a package of changes to the clubhouse for which the club has sought a 50 per cent council contribution.

Top of the list was the lifeguard tower which club manager Glenn Bradley told the Bay of Plenty Times was not watertight and had come to the end of its working life after about 25 years. Water was also entering the main building through the tower.

Asked what would happen next summer if the money did not come through, he said the club needed to get the work done by then. Mr Bradley said it would not be insurmountable if the club did not receive all the money it asked for from the council. "But it would certainly make the job a whole lot tougher."

The club's request was made in a submission to the council's 2015-25 Long Term Plan at a meeting last week. The council will make a decision early next month. It also sought $135,000 to change the layout of the emergency management medical and administrative support facilities. It said the facilities would no longer be fit for purpose once new health and safety regulations came into force.

"The need to upgrade the emergency/admin facilities was highlighted during the Jack Dixon search. Our medical facility is inadequate and has been rated at first-aid room standard," the submission said. Mr Bradley said the emergency room was too small and faced out on to the public area. "It's not ideal when you are working with patients in an emergency situation."

He said the plan was to move the emergency room and for the office to shift into that space so it was more accessible to the public. A less-urgent priority was to build an operations room costing $200,000 to co-ordinate searches. The operations room would provide an area for the search and rescue incident management team - separate to the main hall used for search and rescue operations.

The surf club was the operations centre for the search for Jack Dixon, the 5-year-old boy swept out to sea on October 1 near the Mauao base track. His body was never recovered.