Ansar Shakirov, of California, drowned while attempting to swim with a friend from the town boat ramp to the island in the middle at Haviland Pond.
LUDLOW - Safety at Haviland Pond, where a swimmer drowned on July 28, will be the subject of a meeting on Monday.
Selectmen are due to meet with representatives from the Police and Fire departments and Recreation Commission at 5 p.m. at the Town Hall.
With the town boat ramp restricted as a “no swimming” area and lifeguards on duty at the town beach where a fee is charged to swim, the meeting will be to discuss whether anything can be done to improve safety at Haviland Pond, selectmen chairman William E. Rooney said this week.
“What is the solution? I don’t know,” Rooney said.
At an Aug. 2 meeting selectmen praised work by police, firefighters and three lifeguards who tried to rescue a 19-year-old man. The man drowned while attempting to swim with a friend from the town boat ramp off Center Street to the island in the middle of Haviland Pond.
Rooney and the board extended condolences to the family of Ansar Shakirov, of California, who was staying with relatives in West Springfield when he drowned. Rooney also said selectmen wished to remind the public that the boat ramp is posted as a “no swimming” area.
The boat ramp was closed from the time of the drowning through the weekend of July 31 and Aug. 1, but it has been reopened, Rooney said.
The three lifeguards on duty, ages 17, 18 and 21, are responsible for patrolling the beach. Rooney said they made heroic efforts to rescue the man who entered the pond from the boat ramp.
Selectman Aaron L. Saunders joined Rooney in urging the public to enter the pond for swimming from the beach, not the boat ramp.
“Pay the $1 to go to the beach,” Saunders said. “Use the pond in a responsible fashion.”
The drowning victim went down in 20 to 25 feet of water and could not be revived after he was pulled from the pond, according to Rooney. It marked the third outdoor drowning in recent weeks; Keith Rainville, 45, a homeless man, drowned July 18 while swimming in the Connecticut River, and a week earlier, Carlos S. Torres, 22, of 774 State St., Springfield, drowned while swimming in Wilbraham’s Spec Pond.