Combined effort for life jackets at Sylvia

Safety at Sylvia a priority during summer

By Travis Rains • August 17, 2017 8:30 am
(Travis Rains | The Vidette) The Montesano Fire Department, Montesano Health and Rehabilitation Center and Dennis Company, Montesano, came together to provide new life jackets at Lake Sylvia in an effort to promote safety. From left: Lt. Rick Watkinson of the Montesano Fire Department, Duane Daniels and Amy Clark of the Montesano Health and Rehabilitation Center, Manager of Dennis Company, Montesano Janette Romine and Willow Benner of the Montesano Health and Rehabilitation Center.
(Travis Rains | The Vidette) The Montesano Fire Department, Montesano Health and Rehabilitation Center and Dennis Company, Montesano, came together to provide new life jackets at Lake Sylvia in an effort to promote safety. From left: Lt. Rick Watkinson of the Montesano Fire Department, Duane Daniels and Amy Clark of the Montesano Health and Rehabilitation Center, Manager of Dennis Company, Montesano Janette Romine and Willow Benner of the Montesano Health and Rehabilitation Center.

More can be done for a community when its organizations and agencies work together for the betterment of its citizens. Thanks to these combined efforts Lake Sylvia State Park up the hill from downtown Montesano will have brand new life jackets available for the public.

The Montesano Fire Department in 2014 erected a new life jacket loan station at Lake Sylvia complete with new life jackets.

“Because it is in a state park, we wanted it to look exactly like other structures they have there, so our design was kind of in line with what they already had,” said Lt. Rick Watkinson of the Montesano Fire Department.

Now three years old those life jackets were due to be replaced.

“There’s no lifeguard there and there were no life jackets readily available on the beach itself, so my proposal was to prevent possible injury or drowning by making life jackets available,” Watkinson said.

Thanks to the fire department partnering with Dennis Company in Montesano and Montesano Health and Rehab, 15 new life jackets made their way to Lake Sylvia on Friday, Aug. 3. Dennis Company sold the jackets to Montesano Health and Rehab at a discounted price of $12 rather than the typical price of $20. The total cost for the new life jackets came to about $196.

Montesano Health and Rehab senior executive director Amad Nazifi said that when you’ve been a part of a community for long enough it’s important to give back.

“We should be participating in the community as much as we can,” he said. “That’s part of the culture I was raised in. We take care of each other.”

Montesano Dennis Company manager Janette Romine concurred with Nazifi on the importance of helping the community.

“We help out when we can — it’s about helping the community,” she said. “We all try to take care of each other here.”

Watkinson agreed that partnerships between community organizations and agencies go a long way in making Montesano a better and safer place to live.

“I think its a good example of three local entities working together,” he said.

Lake Sylvia patrons can now make use of the efforts of the three entities as the life jackets are readily available for swimmers, boaters or anyone else utilizing the lake’s facilities. A sign-out sheet has been provided and is being met with more success than Watkinson had hoped.

“I’ve been really amazed at how much it gets used,” Watkinson said. “We’re seeing quite a bit of use, more than I anticipated.”

The sign-out sheet was originally included as a preventative measure against people absconding with the new life jackets. Watkinson said the sheet is already doing wonders for the usage of the life jackets.

“Initially I had some concerns about them going missing, but what I found out is people actually brought a few jackets and left them,” he said. “So instead of having them disappear they’ve kind of multiplied which is great.”

Overall the agencies banded together to promote safety at a park that sees a lot of traffic during the summer months.