Love of his job keeps village native commuting

Even though Jones Beach is one of the most popular beaches on Long Island, it’s a bit out of the way — about a 15-minute drive from the beach to just about anything ... except more beach.

For many of the people who work at Jones Beach, the commute to work is a labor of love to get to a job they love. But for one Rockville Centre native, the commute is a bit longer than most.

Every weekend this summer, Tom Koehler left his home in Galloway Township, outside Atlantic City, N.J., on Friday night and drove to his father's house in Rockville Centre. “I usually get in after everybody’s asleep — 9:30, 10 at night,” Koehler said. “I watch a little TV, go to sleep, wake up in the morning. It’s no rush.”

Koehler, 45, has been lifeguarding for 27 years. And for the past 12, he has been commuting every weekend from New Jersey just to get to Jones Beach. “I enjoy the job,” he said. “They pay me, it’s fun, I can still do it. It keeps me in shape for the winter. It’s something I’ve always done.”

Koehler spent most of his childhood summers at the beach. His father, Robert, was a Jones Beach guard for 47 years. When Tom first started at the beach, he was working with older guards who had known him since childhood.

“And then there are people that I’m working with that I knew as babies,” said Koehler. “It’s a family-type environment.”

Koehler has lifeguarded in other places — Montauk, Robert Moses State Park — but he keeps coming back to Jones Beach. “Each beach has its own little flavor of people who come there,” he said. “It’s all different.”

And even though lifeguarding at Jones Beach means that Koehler is away from his wife of three years, Eileen, every weekend during the summer, she has no problem with his job. “It’s good for him,” Eileen said. “It’s good for him to get up there and out there with his friends.

“Plus, it gives me a chance to go out with my girlfriends,” she joked.

Sometimes Eileen accompanies Koehler so that she can lounge on the beach while he works. “I like it up there,” she said. “I grew up down here at the Jersey Shore, and that was my picture of the beach. But when I go up there, I realize there’s a whole different beach scenario.”

The Jersey Shore, Eileen said, is crowded. And there are houses and nightclubs crammed along the shore, creating a much different atmosphere.