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Bear in mind, I grew up in a state where the ocean is essentially your back door and interestingly, in a community like Newport RI, that caters to tourists as well as boaters from all over the world, here is their inventory of rescue watercraft.

http://www.cityofnewport.com/departme...

And note, some monies are donated by business and private entities, but I do not see a 400k watercraft nor a dismissal of the Coast Guard as a rescue operation relegated to homeland security, as I heard in testimony provided by Marco Island's "professional" safety management.

Yes, I am genuinely upset, because I believe water safety includes the efforts of community based organizations, like Power Squadron, Coast Guard auxiliaries, etc.

But then again, only on Marco Island is money spent ($10MM) for "safety" at the exclusion of other effective organizations at a greatly reduced cost.

Sorry, council, I am deeply disappointed if you cannot recognize a "professional" safety management that can convince the council and community into believing the only consideration of water rescue operations revolved about the savings of replacing a Donzi with a specialized rescue boat.

I do not wish to go into the detail as to the flaw in his presentation, but it was a gem of a sales pitch.

In my world, water rescue operations should be reviewed under a much WIDER perspective, but again, the council was remiss by only considering a presentation by a fire chief whose perspective is narrow and based on highly specialized and expensive equipment.

As for myself, first responders are always other watercraft in the area, so I will always welcome a boater with safety training to provide aid. Because time is of the essence, it always is, that is why Mr. Murphy is resurrecting station 51. So I guess we can await the proposal for a fire station on the water to house watercraft and another platoon.