The park is about 70 acres in total, and 40 acres have been developed. Reardon-McSoley said there also will be a local food vendor selling concessions. There is a launch ramp on one end of the beach for nonmotorized watercraft, and a vendor on-site who will rent out kayaks and paddle boards to those who don’t have their own. There will be eight lifeguards on duty when swimming is allowed, he said - six on the beach and two in the water. And we’ve already started getting them and everything’s a thumbs up. “We get water-quality samples, tested weekly. “And then we operate this the same that really any aquatic recreation during the summertime would do,” he said. Lifeguards train in anticipation of the Geist Waterfront Park beach season, which started over Memorial Day Weekend. Those, combined with six aerators the city installed in the swimming area, will help keep the water from growing dangerous levels of algae. Reardon-McSoley said the swimming area has three natural fresh-water springs that were discovered during development. People were on the beach building sandcastles, and kids explored special equipment made specifically for sand play. The sand has been a big attraction even before swimming was allowed. So, it almost looks like a golf course sand trap when people come in the morning.” And actually, our Department of Public Works team works very hard, raking it daily. “There’s a gradual slope for 50 feet that goes down to a maximum depth of 4 feet. “It has now resulted in a great, very family-friendly experience,” he said. Jake Reardon-McSoley, City of Fishers director of Recreation and Wellness, said the city brought in about 12,000 tons of sand to build up the beach and make it a better swimming experience, compared to the usual muddy lake bottom. If you have a 4-year-old or a 7-year-old, when they walk out there, it’ll be a nice natural kind of incline, versus what otherwise I think was like a 20- or 30-foot drop off.” And then they had to literally haul in thousands of cubic yards of fill to get to the beach. “There was a dam made, the water was pumped out, all the fish were actually shocked - they captured them and then put them back in the lake, so they didn’t die. “So, all that water you see out there was actually drained,” he said, pointing to the designated swimming area. Taking a tour of the park, Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness said development included completely overhauling the beach to make it swim-friendly for a variety of ages. Families wandered through the park’s brand-new facilities kids clambered over the pirate-ship play equipment a group of lifeguards finished up training in preparation for the coming months and almost everyone dug their toes into the soft, sandy beach.
The hard opening over Memorial Day weekend kicked off what Fishers officials call “beach season.”Ībout a week before beach season started, it was nearly 80 degrees on a sunny afternoon. Fishers’ newest park has been softly open to the public since April 22, and has seen steady use, especially on some of the recent beautiful days.
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