Beach draws swimmers, caretakers despite closure
Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Jul 6, 2010 by BRITTANY SHAMMAS
A bag of trash in hand and a beach bag over her shoulder, Getty Nuhn carefully walked around the fence at the Prospect Lake beach, past the “No Trespassing” sign and on to the grass.
The 72-year-old remembers the beach when the weeds were picked, the sand was clean and as many as 200 people would come on a hot day like this one. She’s been coming to Prospect Lake for 45 years.
Nearly 120 years old, this man-made beach is where her children learned to swim and later brought their own children.
On this day, she’s the only one here. She and a group of friends come by to pick up the cigarette butts and trash other people leave behind. They say it’s a shame the city closed the only beach in the Springs.
The four – and many others who love the beach – keep coming back to swim and sit in the closed area. Actions that police and city officials say are illegal.
The city closed the beach to save $49,000 a year, said Ron Cousar, recreation services division manager for the city. The cost, which includes beach house operation and pay for personnel who monitor the beach and boating activities, was only slightly offset by the admission fee.
Boating is now regulated by Sertich Ice Center, on the east side of Memorial Park, and permits are handled with its existing staff.
It wasn’t long ago that city voters showed their desire to maintain Prospect Lake. In 2005, they gave up tax refunds to put a $1.8 million liner on the lake bottom to fix 50 years of leakage that led to two and-a-half years of receding shorelines. The vote came after an advocacy group, Prospect Lake Partners, sprang up to defend the lake and an anonymous donor offered to give the city clay to line the bottom.
The clay was permeable so the city opted for a new liner, which was installed in April 2005. The lake re-opened in September of the same year and swimming returned the next year, drawing 9,500 swim visits.
Now, weeds grow in the sand, the showers are off and the beach house sits unattended with a sign on the front that says it is closed “indefinitely” due to budget constraints.
It’s not like it used to be, but Nuhn and her friends do what they can to keep it clean.
“I love the beach and I like the city,” Nuhn said. “And I do whatever I can to keep what’s nice about the city alive.”
Parents walk around the fence with their children and their beach toys to lay out in the sand and swim in the water. On a recent day, two boys played on an unhinged “Swim area” sign floating in the water.
“The other day, there was a guy here with a little girl,” said 71- year-old Rita Rosenberg, who sat reading a book inside the swim area. “Do you know he was pulling the weeds? He worked for hours.”
But being inside the fenced-in area or swimming anywhere in the water can land a person a citation for trespassing or unlawfully swimming, both of which carry a maximum penalty of $500 in fines or 90 days in jail, Colorado Springs police spokesman Sgt. Darrin Abbink said.
“If the owner tells you you can’t be there, it’s illegal,” he said.
No one has been cited this summer. About 10 years ago, the department had a separate section to patrol parks, but that was eliminated, Abbink said.
Now, a person could get cited if an officer noticed them in the area while on patrol and decided to write a ticket, he said.
Until a decision is made to re-open the beach, Cousar said, using the area remains illegal. People can sit on the sand outside the fence, but with no lifeguards on duty, the water is off-limits.
It is uncertain if the beach will re-open next year, Cousar said
shoulder bag
