GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — Twelve new safety towers at Grand Haven State Park have been installed to keep swimmers safer this summer in Lake Michigan. However, not all residents are on board with the new plan.
"I felt like the money that they spent on these they could have built lifeguard towers and had those out there rather than these big solar panels. I really look at these tools that they're putting out there as band-aid fixes to a drowning epidemic, I mean it this is a national epidemic," said Heather Johnson, founder of the lifeguard plan.
The 12 towers were created and installed by a tech company named SwimSmart. The towers are cellular and Wi-Fi enabled, which allows them to provide real-time updates on water conditions from the National Weather Service. Although the towers were built to prevent drownings, Johnson said they should not be seen as a substitution to having lifeguards.
"It's it should never be seen as a replacement for immediate eyes trained eyes on the water, which would be lifeguards. So in all aspects, you know, the all these extra tools and things like that that are being put out are a great tool to be used with a lifeguarding program, but should shouldn't really be used as standalone objects," said Johnson.
Johnson has witnessed four drownings from Lake Michigan and said water safety is her top priority.
"Taking into account all of the drownings that we've had, we've had over 1,200 drownings in the Great Lakes. You know, we need to be the leaders in water safety and in order to do that we need to put lifeguards on our beaches," said Johnson.
The towers in Grand Haven will be powered on and activated during a ribbon-cutting ceremony next Monday.
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