A beach project in Manitowoc is almost finished.
Parks and Recreation Director Brock Wetenkamp tells Seehafernews.com that Red Arrow Beach is open again to the public after it closed in April for a remodel.
Wetenkamp says the biggest chance is that the parking area now only goes one way.
“It opens up onto Green Street,” he reminded us. “So if you enter the east parking lot, you’re not turning around. You are going straight through, your parking, your pulling out and driving through to Green Street to get back on the roads.”
There are also new concrete walking paths for people of all abilities to reach Red Arrow Beach.
Wetenkamp says previously, it was more dangerous to get to the water.
“We had some very steep, non-accessible concrete paths,” he explained. “And then beyond that was just sand and beach grass. It was a difficult route to get to the beach. And I think that prevented a lot of people from utilizing this beach.”
Funding for the project came from the city and from grants from T-Mobile and the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program.
There are a few things that still need to be built and redone before they are reopened at the beach.
Wetenkamp says railings are being manufactured and will be installed in the future.
But the city is also waiting on sod and dune grass to settle.
“It’s on a hillside, so we don’t want people running down it and the sod to kind of slip out from underneath them,” he stated. “The dune grass that we planted because dune grass plays a really important part of this project and that beach in general. We probably wouldn’t be able to do this project if not for the dune grass. It stabilizes the dunes and stabilizes the hillside. So that’s kind of quarantined off as well to keep folks out of that.”
Red Arrow Park is open from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. each day.
The next big event coming up at the park will be the annual Wisconsin Sand Sculpting Festival, which will get underway in two weeks.
