With the Junior Lifeguard program in Sunset Beach shut down since Huntington Beach annexed the seaside community in August of 2011, residents there do not have to worry about some issues that were perceived as related problems.
“The two main Sunset Beach issues with our former Junior Lifeguard program is the gridlock caused by the drop off and pick up of the kids every day all summer and the taking up of the beach in front of the same homes … year after year,” said Mike Van Voorhis, president of the Sunset Beach Community Association.
The Sunset Beach Community Association was able to cut the ties with California Junior Lifeguards in 2012, after the annexation and its contract expired.
With the program’s exit came a series of finger pointing by both sides.
“Although the owner of the program was given three years notice to change locations or otherwise find a solution, nothing was done until the program expired,” Van Voorhis said.
Officials in charge of Bolsa Chica State Beach turned down requests to move the program there.
Meanwhile, California Junior Lifeguards’ proponents were critical of the Sunset Beach residents who did not want the program nea their homes.
“Then their tactic was to go to the newspapers labeling our residents as selfish and to go to the Huntington Beach City Council to (try to) overrule our Memorandum of Understanding – an agreement between two or more parties to establish official partnerships.
While not legally binding, Memorandums of Understanding carry a degree of seriousness and mutual respect.
In US law, a memorandum of understanding is synonymous with a letter of intent.
While the parties remain in dispute, most agreed that the program was an asset for youth who desired to get Junior Lifeguard training.
However, for this summer at least, local youths who would have participated in Junior Lifeguards in Sunset Beach have either moved to other locations such as the city of Seal Beach, which offers a program of its own, or they have found other activities in which to spend their summer vacation.
“Now that there is not a program in Sunset Beach this summer,” Van Voorhis said. “I think the issue may finally be explored that will satisfy our complaints.”
Van Voorhis said the Sunset Beach Community Association met with the owner of the program in May to begin to see if they could rebuild their relationship.
“We reiterated that a plan needs to be submitted that satisfactory addresses our issues,” Van Voorhis said.
“Any plan would need to be OK’d by our residents. We have not yet received any proposal,” Van Voorhis said.
In order for the California Junior Lifeguards’ program to be reinstated in Sunset Beach it would need to find a compromise with the association over the issues of pickup and drop off of the program participants and how large the program would be and its impacts on local residents.
If the two sides can come together, the city of Huntington Beach would need to enter into a new Memorandum of Understanding with California Junior Lifeguards and work the new agreement into the official wording governing Sunset Beach’s annexation.
