Written on Saturday, August 4th, 2007 at 9:16am by Rus Thompson | 2 Comments

Despite Heat, Erie County's Beaches Stay Closed

bennett_beach.jpg

How pathetic is this? With all the excessive taxes that are paid into the county the Parks department can’t afford to keep the beaches open. Just one question, why is the county in the “Parks or Beach” business anyway?

It all boils down to complete mismanagement of the excessive amount of funds the county receives from us. Time to eliminate so much of county government and return it back to the people.

Despite Heat, Erie County’s Lake Beaches Stay Closed During Week

The signs say “no swimming” but try telling that to hundreds of Buffalo-area residents looking to beat the heat at a pair of county beaches on Lake Erie.

The county-owned Wendt and Bennett beaches in the town of Evans are officially closed Monday through Friday. Officials with the Erie County parks department say the agency doesn’t have the funding to hire enough lifeguards to keep the beaches open during the week.

But with temperatures topping 90 this week, hundreds of people are showing up at the beaches anyway. Many are families with children, but the snack bars and restrooms at the beaches aren’t open during the week.

Some parents tell The Buffalo News that it’s a “pitiful” and “sad” situation.

The beaches are only open on weekends, when lifeguards are on duty.

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2 Comments

  1. starbuck says:
    August 4, 2007 at 2:39 pm

    The county should fund lifeguards by charging an admission fee (say $5/day per adult, $3 per kid under 18, under 12 free if accompanied by adult), and also leasing concession stands to the private sector, and perhaps they could try sell naming rights to the beaches per season. In fact, if possible leasing the whole management of the beaches per season to the private sector would make sense, provided that enough certified lifeguards are used.

    What they should NOT do is fund it out of sales tax or property tax revenue. The beach-goers should be the ones to pay for it.

    If the above ideas aren’t feasible for the county to do, then they should sell the beaches to the town or the state and let them try. This can’t be rocket science.

    Maybe it would make financial sense to do this with only one of the beaches, and sell the other one outright to the private sector.

  2. Rus Thompson says:
    August 4, 2007 at 4:49 pm

    I absolutely agree with you.
    Private individuals should be leasing concession stands the county would be making money on the leases and on the sales taxes. I have no problem charging for entrance, buying passes for residents they can have stickers on their cars.

    There are many ways that these things can be run making a profit vs government run with government employees with salaries, health care and pensions as they are trying to run them now.

    It is past time for privatizing much of government services. The government cannot run their own houses, how can they run anything? They can’t, we see what they have done already and look at where are taxes are. They still want more and more of us.

    It’s time to end the status quo and change the way government operates and the mindset of those elected to represent us.

 

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