Extending Ottawa beach season decision passed along to city council

A City of Ottawa committee is passing along the decision on if and how to extend the length of its beach season.

Currently, lifeguards staff the four city beaches from the third Saturday in June (which would be June 18, 2016) to the third Sunday in August (Aug. 21, 2016).

In the summer of 2015, beaches closed on the first day of a five-day heat wave, which led to a request from Community and Protective Services committee chair Diane Deans that city staff look into ways to extend the season.

In a report to the community and protective services committee, city staff saidthey can pay to have lifeguards at the beaches an extra week and could do it one of three ways:

• Bump back the start and finish of beach season at Westboro and Petrie Island beaches a week, which is their recommended option for its simplicity.
• Bump back the start and finish of beach season by a week for all beaches, which would line up more closely with when elementary and secondary schools are out for the summer, but could mean closed beaches in warm June weather.
• Take their first recommended option, but run a smaller supervised area from June 18-24 andAug. 21-28 at Petrie and Mooney's Bay beaches. This would mean those two beaches would open 72 days each, but 14 of those days would have a smaller supervised area. City staff point out this is the most complex of the three options.

At the Thursday meeting,Knoxdale-Merivale Coun. Keith Egliasked city staff the cost of extending the season an extra week in June, and was told it would be about $16,000 for a weekendand $30,000 for an entire week.

Egli said he prefers an extra June weekend, while Rideau-VanierCoun.Mathieu Fleurysaid he wants an extra week in August because of how warm it's been recently in late August and early September.

The committee ended up thanking staff for their work and forwarding it to city council on March 23 without a recommendation.