Bay Beach, in Green Bay, is one step closer to becoming a swimming destination.
Wednesday night, the City Parks Committee accepted $125,000 in grants ($75,000 Fund for Lake Michigan, $50,000 Wisconsin Coastal Management Program) to help design a swimming beach nearly 80 years after pollution shut the original beach down.
They'll be matched by another $120,000 from the Green Bay/Brown Co. Professional Football Stadium Dist. board.
City leaders say these grants are needed to hire engineers with Patrick Engineering (Green Bay) and Miller Engineers and Scientists (Sheboygan) to study, and eventually design, a swimming beach on-site with all the amenities.
But nothing is set in stone yet, and some struggle with the thought of taking a dip so close to the mouth of the Fox River, which has been undergoing a multi-million dollar cleanup effort in the name of habitat restoration, and increased recreation.
Since the "Bring Back the Beach" movement kicked into high gear last summer, supporters have kept it thriving.
"Bay Beach is a great resource for our community," says beach supporter Chip McDonald, after attending tonight's Parks Committee meeting.
McDonald, who works yards away from bay beach amusement park, says the beach would help the city double its count of one million visitors to the site each year.
"It gives us the ability to get our community on the water again," says McDonald. "We live next to a beautiful resource."
For others it's harder to imagine.
Once a popular swimming destination in the late 1800's, the site's original beach was shut down in 1938 by industrial waste pollution.
"I would not swim here, honestly," admits Lyle Petty, who tries to make the trip to Bay Beach at least once a year.
Since 2012, researchers say three consecutive years of testing the bay's water quality show i's safe to swim. A $1 billion cleanup of the lower Fox River is also underway.
"There are people working on it," says Petty, "but it's going to take quite a while."
But even a feasibility study can have benefits, say city leaders, as it will help shed light on the extent of cleanup still needed in the bay of Green Bay.
"When this is completed we'll have a pretty good idea of how feasible it will be," says Dist. 5 alderman David Nennig, also the Parks Committee Chairman.
City leaders hope to have more concrete answers before this summer is over.
If approved, Mayor Jim Schmitt has said he thinks the project could cost $500,000, to $3 million dollars.
The full City Council will consider accepting the funds at their June 21st meeting.
