By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

NAPLES— Town officials hope that local marinas will be on board with requesting that customers renting recreational equipment will first watch water safety videos.

This is preferred to passing a law or creating an ordinance forcing the marinas to incorporate safety videos into the rental process. 

One video has been edited down to a 5-minute version. A video will be made for each type of watercraft: jet skis, pontoon boats, kayaks, etc.

On Monday, Mark Maroon, a member of the Naples Marine Safety Department, spoke to the Naples Board of Selectmen about one of the missions of the department.

There has been a nationwide push to raise awareness about boating and watercraft safety. The concern at the local level is none too soon.

“This afternoon, we went to a PWC [personal watercraft or jet ski] accident. It was brand new. It was totaled. No one was injured. I think it is the first PWC accident of the year,” Maroon said.

“Last year, we were talking about a program, about what safety measures could be used while renting jet skis or whatever. While we were doing that, this came up from the government,” he said, adding he shortened the 10-minute video.

Maroon played the 5-minute video for the selectmen. 

“We would like to get it into an ordinance,” Maroon said.

Vice-chair Bob Caron II, who had talked to Maroon earlier that day, provided his take on the topic. 

“I like the concept. I don’t know if an ordinance is the way to go. Put the video together, get all the marinas together, show them this video, say, ‘this is our thought to promote safety on the bodies of water in the community,’ ” Caron said. 

He advocated for making the videos as short as possible, 10 minutes or less.

“I would rather not do an ordinance,” Caron repeated. “The key would be get all the marinas together and ask, ‘Would everyone be willing to show it?’ Then, we don’t need an ordinance.”

“The marinas, the people who operate them, are all about safety,” he said. 

“The lakes are nuts. You have a PWC going within 20 feet of a boat, and they don’t even care,” he said.  

Jim Allen, the owner of Naples Marina on Brandy Pond, was at the meeting.

He suggested different videos for different type of watercraft. He said his business does not rent out jet skis.

“Different 5-minute movies would be a better fit,” Allen said. 

Naples Harbor Master Shawn Hebert agreed, adding the marina owners were contacted last summer and supported the use of safety videos.

“We need videos tailored to what they [the marinas] are going to rent. At the Causeway Marina, they are just going to loop it [the safety video] all day,” Hebert said.

Vice-chair Caron said, “They agreed to it on the front end. But show the videos to them, and see if they are willing to show them to their renters.”

Maroon expressed his concern that time was of the essence, but Caron doubted all the ducks could be in a row before this weekend.

“We are worried about the Fourth of July. We wanted to get it out before the Fourth of July,” Maroon said. 

“If we would put something in place in August that would be nice,” Caron said.