East Hampton To Officially Add Wiborg To Its Beaches

East Hampton Village will make Wiborg Beach its fourth official bathing beach for the summer of 2022, adding lifeguards and bathroom facilities to the longtime locals-only, out-of-the-way favorite.

The move comes after lifeguards and the village’s beach management staff pressed for the stationing of lifeguards at the beach, citing safety concerns and the historic need for rescues of swimmers using the beach that draw resources away from the village’s Main Beach, half a mile to the west.

“It’s a safety issue for us, with the number of people out here now,” said Drew Smith, the head of the village’s 30 lifeguards. “Any time we get a call to Wiborg, that pulls resources away from the protected beaches.”

The village has two beaches within its borders that have sizable parking lots but no lifeguards: Wiborg and Egypt Lane. Between them lies the private Maidstone Club, whose lifeguards have traditionally kept an eye on bathers at Egypt Lane — literally since the public beach is immediately adjacent to the stretch of sand the private club uses — and occasionally even respond to calls for assistance at Wiborg, about 1,500 feet away.

Like all local ocean beaches that are not formalized as bathing beaches with stationed lifeguards, swimming is technically prohibited at Wiborg Beach — though that prohibition is little more than a legal formality, declared at the entrance to the beach on a sign that protects the municipalities from legal liability but is never enforced.

The village’s lifeguards made 181 “saves” during the summer of 2021, the vast majority at Main Beach, the village’s largest and busiest beach. But when a call for aid comes from Wiborg, the need to use a vehicle — either a quad over land or a Jet Ski via the water, or both — requires that at least two lifeguards must leave their station at Main Beach.

The lifeguard captains said that if a lifeguard stand cannot be established at Wiborg, a third stand should be manned at Main Beach so that the departure of one team of lifeguards does not leave the busy beach under-manned.

Other veteran lifeguards also pleaded the case for expanding life-saving protection eastward.

“It’s just a matter of time before something tragic happens at Wiborg, with the amount of use that beach gets,” James Amaden said, noting that the beach is popular destination for local surf schools, hours before the regular daily sunbathers begin to arrive.

“This is just a gap in coverage,” Amaden, an insurance agent by trade, added. “The village could have a huge liability concern if you don’t have somebody stationed there, because you are drawing resources from other beaches.”

The village expanded its lifeguarding staff this past summer, and emergency managers said that with the added bodies, the time is right to expand protections.

“We are in a position where we have the ability to put [lifeguards] down there — and they are going to save somebody down there, without a doubt,” Village Police Chief Michael Tracey told members of the Village Board on Friday, January 21. “To me, it’s a no-brainer. We can do it, and therefore, I feel, we have to do it.”

Village officials agreed, and acknowledge that if the beach is to be formalized with lifeguard protections, it will need bathroom facilities.

Village Administrator Marcos Baladron said that the village is exploring the logistics that will be required at the site for bathrooms and what is needed for water and electrical supplies to a facility. Depending on the timing, the village may purchase a pre-fabricated building or construct one from scratch.