The City Commission agreed that these volunteers will provide the necessary ideas to improve safety on Lake Superior's beaches
MARQUETTE -- After a deadly summer on Lake Superior in the Marquette area, with four people drowning while swimming, Monday night the Marquette City Commission expressed hope that the ideas generated by this task force during the next year, will last after being implemented.
"Clearly we've had the kind of summer that we certainly don't want to have as far as what happens on our waterfront. We're learning that this kind of thing has been happening throughout the Great Lakes area, but that doesn't make it any less pressing of an issue for us," said Commissioner Don Ryan.
In the past few weeks, three new warning signs have been posted at the Picnic Rocks Beach. Beneath those signs are channel current signs, educating beach-goers on what to do if caught in a current.
"We are well on our way, I think, with the expertise of this group will develop, and some of the great comments and information they're going forward with, to be able to literally have a model beach-safety program in Marquette and one developed within the community, from expertise within the community, while calling on all the expertise we can from anywhere that's applicable," added Commissioner Fred Stonehouse.
Mayor John Kivela referenced many area resources that the task force could utilize, such as the National Weather Service, NMU, and MGH.
"It's going to be a lot of work for these seven people; it's a very aggressive time-table, and they understand that, and the goal is very lofty," says Kivela. "They know that our goal is we want to have the most aggressive water-safety city on the Great Lakes, and I think that's attainable."
Also at Monday night's meeting, a bid was approved for the Founder's Landing Boardwalk and Seawall Construction Project. Premeau Construction was awarded the $883,633 bid to build the new boardwalk near the north parcel of Founder's Landing, as well as repair the existing seawall.
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