$700K approved for McKinley Beach
Construction will tackle erosion, deadly rip currents
Citing an urgent need to address dangerous conditions at the popular lakefront McKinley Beach, a Milwaukee County committee unanimously voted to approve $712,190 for a restoration aimed at preventing drownings.
Wooden and metal fences currently surround the beach, ostensibly barring public entry but not enough to prevent residents from accessing McKinley.
While the price is steep, for Supervisor Sheldon Wasserman, approval of this stage of the project is crucial to saving lives and protecting residents.
“Today’s a hot day — the last few days have been hot — and people have been climbing the fence,” Wasserman said. “They don’t know how dangerous the problem is.”
“We have a life and death situation here,” he said.
The beach has been closed since August 2020 record drownings and a series of near-drowning incidents due to increasingly dangerous riptide conditions on that stretch of Lake Michigan. In 2020 alone, there were at least four drownings at the beach, including the deaths of a1 4-year-old boy and a 50year-old man.
The solution will return the beach to its original design introduced in early 1989 that aimed at reducing significant erosion and improving beach safety and will also include unspecified safety measures for beachgoers.
In a previous County Board meeting, Wasserman, whose east side district includes McKinley Beach, urged the county to find a more immediate solution to prevent any potential drownings this summer, including the use of a “last chance rope” for swimmers who get dragged out by the rip currents.
A county-funded report on the beach carried out between fall 2021 and spring 2022 and was discussed before the County Board late last month determined that high water and the beach’s geometry were causing erosion and rip currents. That same report also found that three drownings at the beach had been linked to the individuals being too close to the rip currents.
It is expected the project will wrap up the final stages of the plan by early 2023, with final completion later in the year, if the County Board authorizes funding by fall 2022.
The resolution will be voted on during the next County Board meeting, which is expected to meet next week on June 23.