Nothing beats a cheap day at the beach.
But in a sour economy, some local beaches are cutting back hours and others are not so cheap.
Chicago has reduced its beach swimming hours by 30 percent, citing the cost of lifeguards.
Some North Shore towns are reacting to higher demand by adding lifeguards or expanding beach swimming areas — but they’re also charging non-resident visitors more.
Which adds up to an overcast outlook at the beginning of the Memorial Day weekend, the traditional start of the beach season.
The Chicago Park District will save $700,000 over the summer by trimming hours for the city’s 800 or so lifeguards, said Park District spokeswoman Marta Juaniza. Lifeguard times will be 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. instead of 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Swimmers face fines if they enter the water when lifeguards are not present.
Chicago’s approach is unique for a major city and is “manifestly unwise,” warned U.S. Lifesaving Association President B. Chris Brewster.
“The reason you’ve had lifeguards providing services at the time they have is because that’s when history shows they’re needed,” he said. “The failure or absence of lifeguards means potentially death or serious injury. It’s a bit unrealistic to expect that laws are going to resolve your public safety problems.”
Juaniza said Park District statistics show the eliminated beach hours came at times when people weren’t swimming, anyway.
“We did do the research and discovered a lot of people weren’t coming to the beach until noon,” Juaniza said.
Chicago expects 20 million visitors to its lakefront path and beaches this season, and opened a new beach Friday at 39th Street.
Beaches in Lake Forest and Wilmette are under increasing demand, and that has prompted those communities to change policies.
To pay for its increasingly burdened lifeguard staff, Lake Forest will charge a $10 flat fee to non-residents, officials say. It used to be free.
And this summer, Wilmette’s Gillson Park is adding two more lifeguard chairs to a popular beach that keeps expanding southward. Fees also went up by 5 percent for residents and non-residents, said Kathy Bingham, Wilmette superintendent of recreation.
Along with shorter hours and higher fees, area beachgoers face the annual concern over high bacteria levels and closings.
Among the factors that contribute to beach closings are rainy weather, in which water runoff gathers pet waste and bird droppings to feed bacterial colonies in the lake, said U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regional beach program manager Holly Wirick. Other factors include the heavy presence of birds, trash, warmer water and beach shape.
Some beaches seem prone to closings. Of last season’s 37 closings in Chicago, Park District records show Montrose Avenue Beach was closed 10 times, followed by 31st Street and Rainbow Beaches with four closings each.
Swim bans due to high bacterial counts have increased in recent years, Wirick said. So has monitoring, which in many cases has increased from once a week to five to seven days a week. But confirmation of dangerous bacterial counts takes 18 to 24 hours, meaning that swim bans are instituted a day too late and often unnecessarily, critics say.
In an attempt to detect problems more promptly, beaches in Lake County began in 2005 to also use SwimCast, a system that tracks lake conditions such as temperature, current and rainfall to flag situations in which bacteria flourish. Swim bans are then ordered immediately.
It’s right more than 85 percent of the time, said Wirick. Similar models are in use in Ohio and Indiana, and a related software tool tested in Wisconsin last year soon will be available to beach managers around the Great Lakes, she said.
One of the next to use SwimCast will be Chicago. The city this year will collect data to make the system reliable at 63rd Street Beach, Juaniza said. But it will take at least a season of readings before officials start making closures based on the data.
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Chicago-area beaches
The recession is causing some local beaches to increase fees and shorten hours this summer.
ILLINOIS BEACH STATE PARK, Zion
Hours: Sunrise-8 p.m. Cost: Free
Lifeguards: None
WAUKEGAN MUNICIPAL BEACH
Open: Saturday Cost: Free for residents, $20 non-residents
SUNRISE BEACH, Lake Bluff
Open: Saturday Hours: 8 a.m.-8 p.m.
Lifeguards: None until June 13
Cost: Free for residents with beach pass, $10 for non-residents
FOREST PARK BEACH, Lake Forest
Open: Saturday Hours: 6 a.m.-11 p.m. Lifeguards: 10 a.m.-7 p.m.
Cost: Free with proof of residency, $10 for non-residents
– After a spike in usage, Lake Forest has hired more lifeguards. Parking is limited to residents with a city sticker. Non-residents must park near the Lake Forest Metra stop one mile away.
ROSEWOOD BEACH, Highland Park
Open: Now Lifeguards : Not on duty until June 15
GLENCOE BEACH
Open: Saturday Hours: 10 a.m.-8 p.m.
Cost: Residents $6 adult, $4 youth 17 and under; non-residents $9 adult, $7 youth
WINNETKA BEACH
Open: June 12 (swimming prohibited until open)
Cost: Residents $4 adult, $3 youth; non-residents $10 adult, $8 youth
GILLSON PARK BEACH, Wilmette
Open: Saturday Hours: 9 a.m.-8 p.m.
Cost: $4 resident, $8 non-resident
– Growing beach traffic prompted expansion to include a new beach to the south. There are now seven lifeguards instead of five.
EVANSTON BEACHES
Open: June 13 (swimming prohibited until open)Cost: $8 for 12 and older, $6 for children 1-11-years-old
CHICAGO BEACHES
Open : Now Hours: 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. with lifeguards
Cost: Free
– To save nearly three-quarters of a million dollars over the season, swimming hours will start later and end sooner. Swimming is prohibited when lifeguards are not present, and could result in a fine.
WATER SAFETY
A system that predicts dangerous bacterial counts will be in place for a full season at 63rd Street Beach as the Chicago Park District begins to implement a faster way to impose swim bans. Daily bacterial testing that sends beach water samples to labs for confirmation will continue at 63rd Street and other Chicago beaches.
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jjanega@tribune.com
And the beach goes on
Consult our handy beach giuide, courtesy of the folks at Metromix, at chicagotribune.com/beach
