After City Beach was rededicated last summer following major renovations, a community task force went another step this season to reclaim the area as a center of youth and family summer activity.
The problem, they said, is vandalism and after hours partying.
Years ago the beach was a center of summer activity and has since “lost its luster,” according to International Falls City Councilor Gayle Rognerud, a City Beach Task Force member.
City Beach is located on Rainy Lake, three miles east of the Falls and past Ranier on County Road 20.
Improvements made last year at City Beach were intended to attract children and families again. The improvements were made with the help of input and donations from local businesses and individuals through the all-volunteer City Beach Advisory Committee.
Together they installed new slides, a children’s wading area, an outdoor shower, drinking fountain, new benches and garbage receptacles. In addition, the beach offers a floating swimming platform, dressing and bathroom facilities, a concession stand, a covered picnic pavilion and outdoor cooking grills. There is also a regulation basketball court, a sand volleyball court, a swing set and parking lot.
The task force wants to protect the investment and hired Dave and Audrey Winger, two retired postal workers who have traveled and worked around the country in their RV for the past seven years. They are live-in site caretakers and will reside on the first RV site created at the beach. The site includes all the hookups.
“They are very friendly and I feel the City Beach is in very good hands,” said Rognerud of the caretakers.
The “working campers”, a term when salary is mostly in exchange for utilities and lot rent, have a night job that involves keeping after hours vandals and partiers out of the park.
But the Winger’s hope their presence will be seen as a friendly one.
Falls city crews and trustees take care of the grounds and the Wingers expect to greet guests and do their part to create a nice atmosphere on the beach they call “paradise.”
“This is new for the city and new for us, as far as being here in this location,” said Audrey. “We will work together.”
The Winger’s found each other near retirement age. They share a military background and enjoy traveling and working together around the country.
Audrey was raised in International Falls and was an Army spouse with her first husband for six years and traveled around the country. She worked in the Hibbing Post Office until retiring seven years ago.
Dave was raised in the Bovey-Coleraine area and served in the U.S. Marines for 10 years, including three years in Vietnam. He was also a recruiter and a drill instructor before leaving the service and going to work for the post office. His first wife died of cancer in 1996.
The Wingers have four grown children and grandchildren between them who are all scattered around the country. The RV lifestyle created an ideal way for visits and to try out the seasonal mobility.
“We are never in the same place,” Dave said. “We are still seeing this country from north to south to east to west. This year we started at the Mexican border and we ended up here at the Canadian border.”
After the second winter in Arizona, Audrey said they were offered jobs in the camp mail room. Three years later, the couple sold their home to work as “winter Texans” at five-star RV parks with concrete patios, paved streets, cable television, restaurants, motels and shuttles to area attractions.
They find jobs through a work camping magazine and find that motels, restaurants and RV parks believe the elder campers to be good employees who don’t depend on big salaries, Dave said.
They worked summers up north at stationary amusement parks and said they enjoyed the experience of working with so many kids around.
“I can’t remember ever having a tough time with them,” said Dave. “We enjoyed them.
“I don’t foresee any problem with the young people, I really don’t,” he added of their work at City Beach.
Rognerud said the city has ideas for more improvements, ranging from an adjacent boat landing with a picnic area and playground to rustic campsites and additional RV slabs. Their goal is to maintain the feel of a wooded area and draw people to the underused beach.
“We are starting out small and will see how it goes,” said Rognerud. “We don’t want to do things that offend the neighbors or make them uncomfortable.
City Beach Advisory Committee member Diane Hebner said the group works year-to-year and is open to suggestions and dollars from anybody. They hope to get local flower clubs to help beautify the beach entrance.
Beach hours are 8 a.m. until dusk with a lifeguard present at 11 a.m. Free weekday Blue Bus service is expected to begin on June 16 with expanded pick-up sites at:
• Kerry Park — pick-up at 10:45 a.m., return at 1:45 p.m.
• Riverview Park — pick-up at 10:50 a.m., return at 1:50 p.m.
• South Falls Apartments — pick-up at 11:00 a.m., return at 2:00 p.m.
Hebner said there are no age requirements for the kids or permission slips needed. The rides are free for round trips and paid for out of a city fund.
The advisory committee is interested in feedback and is scheduled to meet next at 5:30 p.m. June 9 at City Beach.