By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
Things are going smoothly at the Victoria Park beach, Deputy Director of Community Services Teresa Behan said at this week’s committee-of-the-whole meeting of Cobourg council.
Since it was closed to weekend and holiday use and a maximum occupancy of 1,200 was established, she said, there have been no closures based on occupancy.
“We came close one day last week, one of the hot days,” Behan said.
July 1 was the first statutory holiday on which it was closed, she continued. Aug. 2 will be the second.
Swimming was prohibited at the beach last Wednesday when it got a yellow posting because of high E. Coli levels after testing by the Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit.
“When that does happen, staff are advised immediately, signs are changed and communications are updated” Behan said.
Meanwhile, the health unit retested as soon as they could and, by Thursday the beach got back its green posting – “which is swimmable,” she said.
Behan offered a look at the technical side of things by reporting on the beaches webpage of the town’s municipal website, with 38,852 views since May 1. They average 800 views per day, with Saturday the busiest day of the week – on July 1, there were more than 1,500 views, Behan noted. And a typical viewer will spent two minutes at that site.
“It is ranked the number-one most-viewed page for our site since May 1,” she said.
“Forty-five per cent of viewers get to the page by searching ‘Cobourg beach’ on Google.”
