A22
T he C oast News
JULY 12, 2019
Longtime city employee bids beach goodbye after nearly five decades By Lexy Brodt
DEL MAR — After 47 years of wrangling loose pets, looking after the local beaches, and enforcing the city’s parking regulations, Eric Sandy is retiring from his long-held post in Del
Mar. The Cardiff resident and now former parking enforcement lieutenant worked for the city longer than any other employee. And although his standout memories are countless
(“only a few hundred,” he said), Sandy said the highlight of his career, the reason he has opted to stay in Del Mar for over four decades, has been the people. “More than anything it’s the people I work with — an incredible group of talented, hardworking, personable, professional peo-
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ple,” said Sandy, whose last day of work was July 9. Sandy’s legacy in Del Mar began in the early 1970s, when then Del Mar lifeguard Jack Ross recommended Sandy pursue a part-time position as an animal regulation and beach enforcement officer. In Sandy’s recollection, his response was something along the lines of: “as long as I get to hang out on the beach and get paid for it.” What might have been a joke at the time transformed into a decades-long commitment to the city. When Sandy took on ERIC SANDY retired on July 9 from his position with Del Mar’s the then “temporary” po- Community Services Department. Photos via City of Del Mar website sition with the Lifeguard Department, his title could be described as a “spin- was to maintain a fun, nooff” from your average life- stress environment with as guard, patrolling the beach- few confrontations as possies and returning lost dogs ble. “We’re a vacation desto their rightful owners. “It was very low-key, tination,” he said. “That whole attitude permeates very personable,” he said. The versatility of the everything that we do.” As such, Sandy has deposition ensured that Sandy “doing a little bit of ev- veloped a reputation around THIS WEEKEND was erything,” helping out the town for his “calm, cool and lifeguards with rescues or patient demeanor,” reads riding along with the Fire the city proclamation recogDepartment during a brush nizing Sandy for his service. His skills with mediafire. It also guaranteed that tion eventually led him to a he has no shortage of eye- part-time position with the brow-raising, knee-slapping National Conflict Resolustories about his years in tion Center, where he conthe city, whether collecting tinues to mediate and train stray rattlesnakes from the others in conflict resolubeach after a flash flood or tion. Sandy has been workwrangling a cow that man- ing at the center and in Del aged to float downstream Mar’s Community Services and end up in a neighbor’s Department simultaneously for the last 15 years. yard. He will be continuing And as the Community Services Department his position at the center expanded, so did Sandy’s as he leaves his job in Del responsibilities. Over the Mar behind. But he’ll still years, he transitioned into be sticking around as a more of a law and parking beach-goer. “It’s been a wonderful enforcement role — later overseeing more than a doz- experience,” he said. “I’m going to be back here quite en enforcement officers. Sandy’s modus operan- often, but not as an employdi as an enforcement officer ee.”
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