GALVESTON
Walkers, joggers and anglers dotted Galveston beaches by 7 a.m. Monday to enjoy the first day people were allowed back on the sand in a little less than a month.
The partial beach opening came without major incident Monday, but fair weather over the weekend brought visitors flocking to the island. The influx let city officials and first responders know they need to prepare for crowds this summer despite continued efforts to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
The Galveston City Council in a split vote Thursday reopened beaches between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. daily for exercising, fishing and surfing.
Galveston Island Beach Patrol, which has been ushering people off the sand since the beaches closed March 29, didn’t have any problems with crowds or with getting people to leave the beach Monday, Chief Peter Davis said.
“We had 100 percent compliance,” Davis said.
Dave and Judy Gossom drove down to Galveston from Missouri City to spend about an hour on the beach.
“We were looking for something to do,” Dave Gossom said.
They’d been cooped up working from home for weeks and wanted something different that could get them out of the house, he said.
Galveston resident Jeff Erdman was down on the sand by 6 a.m. to fish and stayed until it was time to leave at 9 a.m.
Erdman is used to being on the beach several days a week to fish, and he’s glad to have a little time to do so now, he said.
“I don’t see a lot of harm in doing it in a limited fashion,” Erdman said.
For the three hours he stood on the beach, he felt like people were adequately social distancing, he said.
Erik and Renee Collins were very grateful to sink their toes in the sand again, they said.
The Galveston residents have a daughter who’s immunocompromised, so they understand the risks of reopening things too soon, but it has long been time for a partial reopening of the beach, Erik Collins said.
“You usually social distance anyway,” he said of being on the beach.
Mayor Jim Yarbrough, who opposed any reopening of the beaches, was pleased with people’s compliance Monday morning, he said.
“By all accounts, it was just exactly the way it should have been,” Yarbrough said.
But the weekend was another story, Davis said.
CROWDED WEEKEND
Beach patrol had 3,490 contacts with people from Friday to Sunday, Davis said.
About 2,500 of those contacts, which means beach patrol staff members ask people to move off the beach, happened Sunday alone, Davis said.
That’s a huge leap from the roughly 240 daily contacts beach patrol has been averaging on the weekends since beaches closed March 29, Davis said.
The line of cars to travel via the Bolivar Ferry to open beaches on the peninsula backed down Ferry Road to Seawall Boulevard, more than a mile. People flocked to the seawall, where visitors and locals set up chairs and walked on the sidewalk.
“I don’t think it was possible for anyone to maintain social distancing for parts of the day because they were so close together,” Davis said.
Emergency services on the island were busy, he said.
Bolivar Peninsula beaches were busy over the weekend, said Brenda Flanagan, president of the Bolivar Chamber of Commerce board of directors.
Bolivar beaches are managed by Galveston County and have remained open throughout the coronavirus pandemic, except for a brief closure over the Easter weekend.
“It was summertime busy,” Flanagan said. “Pretty much the whole peninsula was full of people on the beach.”
They’d likely come both from across the ferry and from the Beaumont area, she said.
“I’m concerned about residents that live here,” Flanagan said.
The weekend crowds were somewhat concerning, Yarbrough said.
“It’s just a foreshadowing of things to come,” Yarbrough said. “That’s why the throttle on these beaches is so important.”
RESPONDING TO THE CROWDS
City officials have said the main reason for closing the beaches is to minimize first-responders’ interactions with the public. Officials worry that more people on the island will lead to more interaction and more risk for first-responders of becoming infected with the coronavirus.
“Citizen contacts are a function of the number of people on the island,” Galveston Police Department spokesman Sgt. Xavier Hancock said. “The more people there are around for any reason, then the more times we are going to come into contact with those folks.”
The city council will meet again Thursday and likely will discuss whether it should open up evening hours for the beaches.
In an address to the state Monday afternoon, Gov. Greg Abbott did not address whether state beaches should stay open.
The Texas General Land Office, which oversees the beaches, has been in touch with the city about beach closures, land office spokeswoman Karina Erickson said.
Local jurisdictions have the ability to close beaches during a disaster declaration, Erickson said.
For Davis, the busy weekend means it’s time to start recruiting lifeguards, a problem he thought he wouldn’t have to face until later in May.
Beach patrol is operating with its 12 full-time staff right now, but during the summer, Davis hires about 120 seasonal guards, he said.
Davis plans to start a lifeguard academy May 9, a course that takes 90 hours, he said.
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April 28, 2020 at 10:00AM
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Partial beach reopening smooth after a busy Galveston weekend - Galveston County Daily News
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