SANDPOINT, Idaho – After standing on the beach for decades, the City of Sandpoint moved to remove its lifeguard stands at City Beach after suspending the beach’s lifeguard program for the summer of 2025.
The city debated what to do about the lifeguard program since 2023, when officials began reporting concerns about a lack of qualified individuals applying to be lifeguards.
The City Beach lifeguard program was suspended in 2023 and 2024 due to a lack of qualified applicants. Sandpoint initially posted open positions for the 2025 summer season with a wage of $14.50/hour. The wage was later increased to $16/hour, but still, there was no sufficient interest in the lifeguard program.
“The challenge is, we don’t have the interest in new people becoming lifeguards. And, as a result, we weren’t able to attract enough candidates to actually fuel the new crew of lifeguards this year or last year. So, as a result of the perceived liability of having lifeguards stands up… [this] would make someone think there’s a lifeguard on duty,” Mayor Jeremy Grimm said.
Mayor Grimm explained to Nonstop Local that the city opted to remove all lifeguard stands this week so no one will believe a lifeguard is on duty this summer.
City Beach needs between 11 and 16 lifeguards on staff to operate at full capacity.
“You can’t just put one lifeguard on the beach to cover the whole area,” Mayor Grimm said.
As far as community concerns, he said the city has had residents voice their displeasure in a lack of lifeguards.
“I have a lot of little kids running around, so it would be nice to have other eyes on kids, because they go that way, they go that way, and then I have to watch all different directions, so it would be nice if there were other eyes watching,” Karissa Bell, a beachgoer at City Beach Thursday, said.
Mayor Grimm told Nonstop Local the city will try again next year to recruit lifeguards.
