After organizing a lifeguard workshop earlier this month to weigh residents’ concerns over whether or not the town needs lifeguards on its beach, Mayor Roseann Minnet said Broward County should help subsidize Lauderdale-by-the-Sea lifeguards since the town attracts so many visitors.

"Every day we have tourists come here from all over," Minnet said.

Some commissioners say the town alone cannot afford the $1.5 million price tag for lifeguards along the two-mile stretch of beach, and that the Volunteer Fire Department’s recent addition of an ATV beach patrol is enough, despite frequent rip currents.

“The biggest danger I see is kids running away from parents and ending up in the water,” said Commissioner Jim Silverstone, who has lived in the town for 25 years. “We’ve reached a good medium [with the ATV patrol], and I’m leaning toward improving what we have now.”

Silverstone said the town would spend approximately $1.5 million a year to have 14 lifeguards and two supervisors on duty seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Commission passed a resolution Nov. 10 urging the county to help fund the town’s lifeguard bill.

“There is a general area where [drownings] occur,” said Commissioner Birute Ann Clottey. “Some of us are willing to pay for lifeguards.”

Neighboring Pompano Beach has 101,457 residents and pays $1.3 million annually for 18 full-time and 26 part-time lifeguards on its three-mile stretch of beach, which averages to roughly $12 per resident.

With only 6,300 residents, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea would be paying $239 per resident for comparable services.