OBSERVER Photos by M.J. Stafford
An angler fishes off Wright Park Beach in Dunkirk Wednesday.
Beach season is here and Dunkirk’s Lake Erie shores are a popular site. City Department of Public Works Director Randy Woodbury offered an update about their condition Tuesday.
“We used to have more bathing beaches in the city but Wright Park will be it for the summer,” he began, speaking during a Common Council meeting. “We’re limited in lifeguards, and it’s also the best for comfort. It doesn’t have sharp rocks underfoot, and it has good water quality.”
Woodbury mentioned the bank behind the Wright Park beach. The bank is partially covered by riprap. “The long term plan is to extend this riprap along to protect the bank from eroding toward the (Beach House bar and grill), and then they’ll be able to manicure that a lot more effectively. But they’ll do the best they can now.”
He said, “Right now both beaches in the First Ward pretty much look like the Riviera. The beaches on the Second Ward are being addressed. We have a grader down there…we made one run.”
Cedar Beach, next to the mothballed NRG power plant, “is a very nice beach, people like to collect driftwood there. The plan that (the Chautauqua County) Soil and Water Conservation (District) has is to redo this beach so that it doesn’t have stagnant water behind the dunes.”
The wall behind Memorial Park will also get riprap to help stabilize it, he added.
Woodbury said the Soil and Water Conservation District has “already put about $400,000 worth of improvements to the city. They kind of worked from east to west, so the First Ward got benefits first, now we’re working more toward the Second Ward beaches as well.”
Woodbury concluded, “It’s a work in progress and we have the support of shared services from the county, so I’m excited about it.”
“That is awesome,” replied Councilmember Natalie Luczkowiak. She spurred Woodbury’s comments about the beaches by stating that the Wright Park beach bank does not look good and should be improved, to avoid a bad impression for visitors to the city.