Lake Mitchell beach gets facelift

• Beach work

Mitchell Parks and Recreation workers Brad Gates, front, and Dustin Brummett rake dirt Friday on one of the tiers of the retaining wall that was built recently at the Public Beach on the north side of Lake Mitchell. (Chris Huber/Republic)

Talk about it

Some lake-goers may have noticed one less spot to swim at Lake Mitchell this summer.

The Public Beach along North Harmon Drive on the north side of Lake Mitchell has been closed as city workers make improvements to it.

“Basically, that beach was highly underutilized because the slope of the beach didn’t allow for sand to stay on the beach,” said Mitchell Parks and Recreation Director Dusty Rodiek.

A two-tiered retaining wall has been put in and the slope that is adjacent to the water was flattened out to help hold sand on the beach.

Rodiek said he expects the beach to be open again by next weekend.

“Eventually, we will be planting grass on each of the two tiers of the retaining wall, so if people don’t want to lie in the sand they will be able to lie up there on the grass or have a picnic up there,” he said, “though the grass may not be planted until closer to fall.”

Because much of the work was done by city parks employees, the cost to add the retaining wall was held around $9,000.

“If we would have contracted it out, it probably would have been close to $30,000 to do the same thing, so we really saved a lot of money there,” Rodiek said.

The other part of the restoration project of Public Beach was improving the restrooms. They have now been repainted, and a new hot water heater was installed.

“We really wanted to improve the aesthetics and the usability of that beach, and with the improvements we are making, I really think we have done that,” Rodiek said.

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