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Lifeguard’s Courtesy Ride To Beach Wins Applause

By
Joanne Pilgrim

The efforts of an East Hampton Town lifeguard who helped an elderly woman get on to a Montauk beach to join family members on an ocean outing have garnered widespread attention and heartfelt thanks from the woman’s family as well as from East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell, who expressed his accolades in a Facebook post.

Janet Dunne of Bethel, Conn., wrote an open letter to the Montauk Chamber of Commerce lauding Shane McCann, the lifeguard who went out of his way to help her 94-year-old mother onto the sand.

The family has been visiting Montauk for a dozen years, and until this year they managed to help her mother get to the beach, said Ms. Dunne in her letter. They needed a beach wheelchair this time, and were referred by the Chamber of Commerce to the town lifeguards.

The lifeguards didn’t have one available, Ms. Dunne said, but Mr. McCann drove an all-terrain vehicle to the door of the family’s hotel room, picked her up, and drove her to where the family was sitting, in front of the Surf Club. He picked her up later, and when he dropped her off back at her room, “he gave her a hug and told her she was an inspiration to him,” Ms. Dunne wrote. “The look on my mom’s face was something I will never forget and this made our vacation. . . . I love Montauk and always have. This may be Mom’s last visit, so this meant more than I can ever say.”

“This makes me proud of our community, lifeguard staff, and Shane,” Mr. Cantwell wrote in his Facebook post. “You’re the best.”

Though Ms. Dunne’s mother may have needed help to get to the beach this year in any case, the Army Corps of Engineers’ new sandbag seawall requires climbing up wooden stairways and then down to the beach at several of the downtown access points. That poses a difficulty for the mobility-impaired, and town officials have opted to foot the bill to install ramps from the landward side of the steps to their center platforms. The ramps cannot continue down the other side all the way to the sand, however, as the beach is not wide enough to accommodate a safe slope.

Drew Bennett, an East Hampton engineer, is working on the design of ramps that will comply with Americans With Disabilities Act specifications, to be installed at the pedestrian beach accesses at South Edgemere Street and at Surfside Place. He will be paid $6,000.

At its meeting last Thursday night, the board approved the issuance of a $155,000 bond to pay for construction of the ramps.

 

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