Ryan Oakley, owner of True North Group property liquidation services, said he has purchased five lifebuoys for the end of the pier and is waiting for city permission to install them.
A Langford business owner said the recent drowning death of a teenager on Langford Lake has “shocked” the entire community, and he wants to purchase lifebuos for the pier and install them as soon as possible.
Ryan Oakley, owner of True North Group Property Liquidation Services, said he bought five pier-end lifebuos from Canadian Tire for $89.99 each and hooks from Rona for $9.99 and is waiting for permission from the city to install them.
“As soon as we get the email, if council gives us the go ahead and we have it in writing, we'll jump in the truck and put the lifebuoys out there,” Oakley said, adding that they will be placed on the ground or on poles or attached and set up as instructed.
The Capital Regional District Parks Board voted unanimously Wednesday to recommend a pilot program to provide life jackets and life rings (but no lifeguards) on Thetis Lake and Elk/Beaver Lake. The CRD's next meeting is July 10. Langford Lake is not within the CRD's parks.
Despite renewed calls for lifeguards following the drowning of Dequan Keron McKay this month in Langford Lake, the staff report did not recommend reinstating the lifeguard programs that were ended at Thetis Lake in 2002 and Elk/Beaver Lake in 2003.
There were 32 drownings on Vancouver Island in 2023, the highest number in the past 10 years and more than any other part of the province. Provincewide, there were a total of 101 drownings, also a record number of drownings from 2013-2023.
A pilot program for lifebuos and personal flotation devices (known as PFDs or life jackets) could be implemented immediately for the remainder of the summer within the $35,000 budget currently allocated for public information campaigns and outreach for area parks and trails, according to a CRD Parks Committee staff report.
An evaluation of services will take place at the end of the swimming season.
The British Columbia and Yukon Lifesaving Association estimates the recommended cost of a lifebuoy is about $1,500 each, depending on the length of the line attached, while the cost of lifeguard services from May through September can run more than $270,000 per beach.
Oakley, who has three children with his fiancée Brittany Loomis, said the moment he heard about the drowning and the lack of lifesaving equipment on the beach or pier, he thought “I won't let this happen.”
“We're waiting to hear back from the city council,” Oakley said, “I've gone and bought it all and it's ready to be put up there.”
Oakley plans to meet with the city next week on behalf of his company, which also owns Petrichor Window Cleaning Services and Beau & Gray Cleaning, to donate the equipment and has offered to build whatever type of mounting system the city wants.
Oakley argues that from a liability standpoint, the city needs to determine and purchase the types of life jackets it needs.
Eric Ambroso, 43, an education researcher, was walking around Langford Lake with his parents on June 15 when he saw his wife, Allison Ambroso, run to the jetty, jump into the water and help pull the boy out.
Since then, there has been much support for installing lifesaving equipment on the lake, but nothing has been done.The researchers wrote a letter to the CRD Parks Committee chair on Friday, urging the district to include Langford Lake in a pilot program for the equipment.
“After West Hills' investment in the Langford Lake Improvement Project, we are shocked that the City of Langford and CRD will not provide life preservers at Langford Lake, an extremely popular swimming spot for area families,” Ambroso wrote.
Mr Ambroso argued that Mr McKay's friends “if they had had a life ring or a jacket” would have had a chance to save him, “but they could only watch from the pier, helpless to help, as Mr Kerrone flared his arms and took his last breaths.”
In a phone interview, Ambroso said he is not a strong swimmer and without a life jacket he would have found himself in the same situation as the young people on the pier and would not have been able to help.
“I felt like those kids who just watched their friends go underwater and couldn't help,” Ambroso said. “And I felt helpless because I wouldn't have been able to help in that situation.”
Mr MacKay was taken off life support on June 19th.
“We know that these events get forgotten once they're no longer in the news, and we know a lot of people have written letters to the city, so we want to make sure there's some kind of response,” Ambroso said.
Ambroso forwarded the letter to Langford Mayor Scott Goodmanson on Friday after learning Langford Lake is not within CRD Parks.
In a phone interview, Goodmanson said he's “for” anything that promotes safety on the lake and helps with life-saving efforts.
“I think the idea of providing lifebuos and life jackets for both children and adults is a good one,” Goodmanson said, adding that he would work with the city to promote the idea.
At Wednesday's CRD parks committee meeting, Goodmanson suggested budget considerations for lifeguards, lifebuos and life jackets should be a secondary issue.
“Frankly, what is the value of the life that could be saved?” Goodmanson said. Saying the cost is too high would, to some extent, be putting a price on life, he said.
West Hills, which owns land beside Langford Lake, supplied and installed the pier, said manager Ryan McKenzie, who added that the pier has essentially been turned over to the city, which doesn't need any permission from the company.
“I'm very much in support of anything we can do to improve people's safety,” McKenzie said.
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