Connie Tabbert
Editor
BEACHBURG — There’s a bright, yellow raft just off the shore of Little Lakes for people to use for sunbathing or jumping off or just sitting and relaxing with friends.
There may be less than a month of swimming left, but Cameron Dube is happy the raft was purchased and installed before summer’s end.
Over the spring and summer, enhancements at Little Lakes beach have been ongoing. The enhancements began with BORCA (Beachburg Off Road Cycling Association). However, with the call of help from Mr. Dube and others involved with BORCA, a new association was formed, that being Friends of Little Lakes. It’s a group of volunteers who responded to the call for help, he said.
To help with the enhancements, “the group of volunteers reached out to the community and local businesses asking for dollar donations or in-kind work and we received lots of good positive feedback and help,” he said.
Working with the township, the right type of raft was purchased and with insurance through the township, the raft in the lake became reality Saturday morning with its installation, he said. Due to the insurance liability, staff from the municipality had to be on scene when it was installed, Mr. Dube said. Public works manager Bill Misener was at Little Lakes Saturday morning and watched the installation, giving advice when asked.
The raft will be removed about mid-September, depending on the weather, only to reappear next summer, Mr. Dube said.
Looking around the area, he pointed out the various planters filled with flowers, which are watered on a regular basis. He also noted Don Garfatt Tree Services donated a bench, which is under a tree, surrounded by wood chips.
“We’ll continue to enhance the area with picnic tables,” he added.
Mr. Dube recalled when the idea for enhancing the beach and area was first discussed. BORCA and other volunteers did garbage clean-up, taking out a few trailer loads of stuff that shouldn’t have been found in the area, such as paint cans, tires, toilets and the usual litter, such as take-out containers. Clean-up has been an ongoing thing, but there is less and less of it each time, he added.
A trail along the shoreline has been cleaned out and a viewing area enhanced, Mr. Dube said. It’s hoped next spring a bench will be added for people to sit and enjoy the view at the trail’s end.
There are several large rocks near the start of the trail and they will be used for various reasons. One will be to block off a beach area so people won’t park their vehicles too close to where people swim and the fishermen will know the boundary between where to fish and where people swim.
“We’ll need to leave room for the school bus to turn around and the fire trucks to pump water,” he said.
The rocks will also be placed on the trail so people cannot back vehicles up and dump off garbage, Mr. Dube added.
The reaction from the public has been what was expected, he said.
“Thoughts with this project were the same as the county forest project,” he said. “We wanted to encourage people to use the trails so we cleaned them up and now like-minded people are using the area,” he said. “There was a huge improvement in the amount of garbage not being dumped. That’s what we are encouraging here and we are beginning to see less garbage.
“People are respecting the area. There’s been no negativity . There’s only good feedback.”
If anyone would like to become a volunteer with Friends of Little Lakes, email Mr. Dube at [email protected]
