PARADISE REGAINED
Waves of visitors expected as Toronto Islands reopen for first time since spring flooding. (But if you have a picnic, mind the puddles.)
The Toronto Islands are bracing for another flood.
This time it’ll be waves of visitors arriving at the city’s lake oasis, bringing the sweet waft of sunscreen and the laughter of summer fun.
Toronto Island Park opens again Monday. Flooding had shuttered the islands since mid-May — it was so bad, carp were swimming over one submerged baseball diamond — but our island in the sun is open for business once again.
“I’m expecting a bit of a crazy day on Monday,” says longtime Algonquin Island resident Linda Rosenbaum. “I think we’ve all been quite amazed at what a major event the closing of the island has been for Torontonians and how people are looking forward to coming back.”
The ferries will begin chugging from the mainland at 6:30 a.m., the first off to Ward’s Island. At 8 a.m., escapees from the city’s summer’s heat can begin returning to Centre Island. Ferries have been running to Ward’s — a largely residential island — during the cleanup but with limited access.
The islands aren’t perfectly dry. Some pools of water remain where there were none before. And some patches of grass are quite soggy, definitely too wet for a picnic.
But there are also large swaths of lush green lawn that look just as visitors remember from previous summers. Oddly, the sprinklers were turned up full blast near the Centre Island Boat House on Sunday.
Olympic Island remains closed and there will be some other areas that are clearly marked as inaccessible due to groundwater.
It’s taken a monumental effort to get the park ready again.
“I think we’ve all been quite amazed at what a major event the closing of the island has been for Torontonians and how people are looking forward to coming back.” LINDA ROSENBAUM ALGONQUIN ISLAND RESIDENT
The city used 27 pumps, including nine industrial-sized units, 24 hours a day to remove surface pooling. There are pumps still in operation on the islands.
They also moved earth, used more than 45,000 sand bags — many of which are still visible — and dumped gravel in some areas in a race to get the park open by Monday’s self-imposed deadline.
At peak flooding, water covered more than 40 per cent of the island’s surface as Lake Ontario recorded its highest water level in decades. Even now, the beaches appear as if much of the sand has been removed for the bags used to stem the push of lapping waves.
The beach on Ward’s Island, for example, is about a quarter of what it once was.
“Better get there early if you want a spot,” said Susan Roy, another longtime resident.
Crews continued to work Sunday, raking landfill into wet spots along the roadway between Ward’s and Centre Islands.
“We’re trying our best,” said one worker. “We’re trying to stay half a step ahead; there’s a lot to do still but it’s a huge difference already. We want the park to be beautiful. That’s why people come here.”
Centreville Amusement Park will open at noon Monday but spokesperson Shawnda Walker said there will be no fanfare to mark the occasion.
“People want to just get on those rides so we’re just going to open the grounds, get those rides going and, hopefully, there’ll be great crowds,” she said.
While Centreville management has no idea how many people to expect, Walker senses a pent-up demand based on the volume of emails from the public — sometimes as many as 50 in a day — asking when the theme park would reopen.
“We’re going to be prepared for a busy day,” she said.
Not all the rides will be operational. Some of the track for the train remains underwater and will need to be replaced. It won’t run this summer. The docks for the swan ride and bumper boats are also submerged making boarding unsafe. Walker said there is still hope those rides will open before the summer is over. And the barns and pens at Far Enough Farm, a petting zoo, remain sodden so the animals are staying at farm in Schomberg. The shutdown has been understandably hard on island businesses. The Star earlier reported that Centreville has lost more than $6 million in revenue and ownership sold its iconic carousel for $3 million to offset some of that money. The 110-year carousel will be in operation for the remainder of the season.
Brandon Sherman of the Otter Guy water taxi service says boat opera- tors have been “hemorrhaging” carrying about 10 per cent to 20 cent of the passengers that normally ride to the islands.
“We have no idea what to expect (Monday) but we’re all hoping for good things,” he said.
The flooding also prompted the owners of the Rectory Café, on Ward’s Island, not to continue their lease beyond this year. After a14-year run, they are helping to identify a new ownership group to take over the restaurant. That the park is open now won’t be make up for lost revenue says Ken McAuliffe, one of the owners.
There is “a lot of built up demand” to return to the islands, he wrote in an email, but “unfortunately it will not be sufficient to counteract the loss of business over the last two and a half months for most of the Toronto Island businesses.” This summer, Rosenbaum and Roy started a business together — Walk Ward’s Island — taking visitors for guided tours. Rosenbaum concedes the timing might not have been the best. But beyond the impact on her new endeavour, she’s just excited visitors are about to return to the islands in big numbers.
“It has been like a ghost town,” she says. “In some ways, it’s been quiet and peaceful and there’s never any lineups and we don’t have to jostle through crowds just trying to get home. But we miss people.
“I was down at Centre (Island) where the formal gardens are and the Parks department has been pruning the gardens and the flower beds are absolutely beautiful. But it’s bizarre because there’s not one person looking at them. It’s so strange.
“It’s so beautiful and there’s so much to see, it’s a shame people couldn’t come but it really was flooded. It was bad and it was dangerous. You wouldn’t be able to keep people safe. Now people will be safe.”