Bottlenecks and bathroom blunders
Construction closures lead to entrance queues and unsanitary practices at Bay Beach
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. Likewise in Fort Erie, you can direct people to a portapotty, but it seems you can’t make them use it.
Due to the ongoing construction at Bay Beach this summer, both the main entrance to the beach, and the accompanying washroom facilities are closed.
Despite the town installing portapotties nearby, there are widespread reports of people relieving themselves directly onto the sand, and multiple instances of “floaters” being found by swimmers.
“The behaviour of the beachgoers who leave human waste and garbage is inexcusable,” said Ridgeway resident Anne Courtney. “So many families use [the beach] and right now it’s a disgusting mess and a health and contamination hazard waiting to happen.”
Most of the surrounding land at Bay Beach is privately owned by seasonal cottage residents. Prior to closing the main entrance and washroom facilities, the town worked out a deal with some of the nearby property owners to place porta-potties on their land, which is just west of the only remaining public entrance to the beach, near the Ashwood Avenue gate.
According to Kelly Walsh, the town’s infrastructure services director, there are eight porta-potties at that location, and another one at the parking lot across the street from the shuttered main entrance.
“When the town set out to do this project, we realized that removing the washrooms would be a great inconvenience for all patrons,” said Walsh, who noted that with nine porta-potties in total, there are currently more toilets at the beach now than there were at the old facility, which only had six units. He also said signage has been erected to direct people to the new temporary washrooms.
The reconstruction of Bay Beach, which has a price tag of about $3 million, is a major construction project expected to run through the rest of the summer tourism season.
“The old washroom will not reopen, it will be demolished as part of the park construction,” said Signe Hansen, the town’s manager of community planning.
“Construction of the new washroom is expected to take a number of months, so it will not be available this beach season but will be available next season.”
With the main entrance fenced off, the construction has also created a bottleneck at the other gate during busy weekends.
The narrow Ashwood Avenue entrance is only wide enough for people to either enter, or exit, but not at the same time.
This resulted in a long queue of people waiting at the Ashwood Avenue entrance over the Canada Day long weekend, because there wasn’t enough room to accommodate both the large numbers of people trying to enter and exit the beach at the same time.
According to Walsh, the town is keeping an eye on the issues at the beach, and will be making adjustments as needed.
“We are also reviewing the performance of the facility on a weekly basis to determine when and where improvements need to be made,” he said.