The seven-member task force is still in the information gathering stage, meaning they're still conducting a lot of research, as well as brainstorming any and all ideas that could reduce waterfront hazards
MARQUETTE -- Tuesday night the task force began working toward the first of their four goals and that's education awareness.
Mayor John Kivela introduced the seven-member waterfront safety task force to the community at Tuesday night's city commission meeting, and he recognized their commitment to being involved.
"It's not going to be easy. This is not a board that is going to spin its wheels and have their report put on a shelf somewhere. This is truly important," said Kivela.
The task force immediately got to work, beginning the meeting with a presentation that outlined all of the water hazards experienced by the city of Marquette in the past 50 years. When breaking down the number of incidents by gender, 85 percent of those who drowned were male, and only 15 percent were female.
And not all of those were at Picnic Rocks, nor were they just in the past few years. The data compiled showed other high-risk areas like Middle Bay and Black Rocks, both near Presque Isle, over the past five decades.
Sixty percent of those that have drowned in Lake Superior in the city of Marquette have been between the ages of 18 and 24.
"What's glaring is it's N.M.U. students, male N.M.U. students," said task force member Karla McCutcheon. "What can we do to hit college students today, because educating college students today is much different than ten years ago."
In addition to educating N.M.U. students, the task force also talked about how they could make out-of-area visitors more aware of the dangers of Lake Superior. Several ideas were thrown out, everything from a roving lifeguard to removing parking from near the dangerous beaches to floating platforms.
"It would be very easy to put a device in the water that would show just how much current there is that would make people aware of it," suggested task force member Bob Frak.
The task force will meet again in two weeks when they will be briefed by various city staff members on steps taken to ensure waterfront safety thus far.
The city commission has asked to see a preliminary list of recommendations by February 15.
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