HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — With a blistering day — the heat index could reach 99 — and the Fourth of July holiday ahead, a beach trip seems inevitable, not to mention a summer tradition.
There’s one tradition Ottawa County Sheriff’s Marine Patrol Sgt. Eric Westveer would like to end: Jumping off piers.
“The majority of pier heads have rocks that surround the pier heads that are underwater,” he told WHTC. “In those rocks a lot of times are tangeled lines from fisherman who have cut lines. You have currents, structural currents, that run alongside those piers. Even on a day when the water looks calm and smooth, you just don’t know what lies underneath.”
He suggested that it’s important to let visiting family and friends know about beach dangers.
The Fourth of the July is one of the busiest holidays for the marine division, with crowds of boaters and crowds on beaches all along Lake Michigan’s shoreline, especially at Holland and Grand Haven’s lakeside state parks.
Enhanced enforcement is underway, he said.
