COCOA BEACH, Fla. — As we slide to the summer months – there’s a growing battle over who pays for seasonal lifeguard protection on Brevard beaches.

The County commissioners – who fund Brevard Ocean Rescue – want towns to pay half the cost of funding for protection along the coastline.

It would mean Cocoa Beach, for example, which has four seasonal lifeguard stands, would have to shell out nearly $800,000 to split the $1.6 million cost with the county.

The city has decided not to participate in the lifeguard program if they must pay the increased amount, with City Manager Wayne Carragino saying the Tourism Development Council (TDC) should pay for it.

This would not impact year-round towers.

“We don’t feel it’s fair,” said Carragino. “Our take on it is that the TDC should be paying for the lifeguards. The TDC currently advertises from New York down to Miami to California to around the world to come to Cocoa Beach, not Melbourne, to Cocoa Beach, and to swim here, where they have lifeguards and where it’s safe to swim near a lifeguard stand.”

Carragino adds some 50% of the city’s fire and police calls are related to tourism and the beaches.

He says by the end of this fiscal year if things don’t change, more lifeguards could be cut — and signs posted to swim at your own risk.

The county might pull the stands off the beach due to liability issues.

“It’s real easy to ask when you have no skin in the game, so what we’re asking is for the cities to participate, they make a great deal of revenue from parking that the county doesn’t collect, so I think it’s important that we have a partnership in public safety,” says Brevard County District 3 Commissioner John Tobia.

The county has also offered to pay half the cost if cities want to fund their own lifeguard program.

The county commission is meeting May 21 to discuss and possibly vote on the matter.