Barrier Island Ocean Rescue
Year-to-year beach enforcement comparison, according to Barrier Islands Ocean Rescue.
At the Kiawah Island Town Council meeting on Feb. 7, Director of Public Safety Craig Harris expressed his support renewing the contract with Barrier Island Ocean Rescue for a one-year contract that commenced on Feb. 14, with the option to renew for two one-year extensions for $389,376 with no changes to the current contract scope or schedule.
However, there is one drastic change to this renewal contract. It is actually costing the town more than $100,000 more from their last contract renewal. The reasons for the increase have much to do with the changes in the economy as a whole.
The town entered into an agreement with Barrier Island Ocean Rescue in 2019 for a one-year contract with the option to renew for two one-year extensions for $288,580. When that agreement came up for renewal in 2021, the town agreed to renew at $288,580 again from February 2022-23.
Harris recognized the changes that have taken place, even from just one year ago, to reflect a need to increase the amount of money for the contract. He asked Michael Sosnowski, a representative with Barrier Island Ocean Rescue, to present the reason for the increase at the town council meeting.
Sosnowski noted that their contract has not increased since January 2020. “Our intention is that we will not have to raise it again between now and the term of the contract which is one year in terms of a three-year scope.”
Sosnowski explained that their biggest expense has been in hourly payroll for workers. “That has been our biggest increase since COVID.”
Sosnowski went on to highlight the six largest increases his company has faced since the last contract:
$41,229 increase in payroll
$24,000 increase in vehicle cost to include fuel
$15,000 increase in training costs
$13,000 spending for retention, advertisements and promotion just to hire staff
$12,000 increase in insurance
$10,000 increase in technology and supplies costs
“That includes up to about $115,000, which is more than the increase we reflected, but we were able to economize in other areas,” Sosnowski said.
He noted that not everything increased across the board, but that they have seen an increase in many areas since January 2020.
Council member John Moffitt, the liaison for the Kiawah Island Ways and Means committee supported the increase in cost for two reasons. “There hasn’t been an increase in a while. And he was able to show exactly what the extra $100,000 is coming from.”
Sosnowski also provided a brief update as to how Barrier Island Ocean Rescue benefits the community. “All of our staff are trained at the minimum level as USLA open water lifeguards,” he began. “Which means they have hundreds of hours of training on ocean rescue. In addition, they are trained as a first responder.”
Sosnowski went on to explain that Barrier Island Ocean Rescue is DHEC certified and now 80% of the calls they respond to are responded to by an EMT basic or above. “We are essentially putting our staff through EMT school as they are working for us just so we can provide a higher level of care.”
They staff both Kiawah and Seabrook during the day and only Kiawah at night. The leadership of Barrier Island Ocean Rescue have a combined almost 40 years of experience in emergency operations. They have been contracted with Kiawah Island to do beach patrol since 2009 and code enforcement since 2020. He also noted that a large part of their code enforcement is short term rental enforcement.
The Short Term Rental enforcement hotline is 843-259-2137. The Beach Patrol hotline is 843-714-9819.
The ocean rescue contract was approved unanimously by council.