Marquette Beaches Opening Tomorrow

The weather conditions leading up to Memorial Day have been very tempting for beachgoers.

And starting tomorrow, you can be protected by lifeguards if you want to give in to that temptation in Marquette.

Lifeguards will be on duty at McCarty’s Cove and South Beach every day from noon until 8, through Labor Day, weather permitting.

With temperatures cracking the 80 mark much of the time lately, many people have wanted to take a dip.

Christina Moffett, the city’s head lifeguard, says the lifeguards went through their final dry run today and are ready to help anyone in distress in the swimming areas.

The Picnic Rocks area is still off limits to swimmers for the time being, but it has not been closed permanently.

Fire Chief Tom Belt says that for Picnic Rocks to re-open, the city would have to have three years’ worth of current data from the water to evaluate.

The city is gathering that data now.

The area may be re-opened if the currents are calm enough.

In 2010, Marquette and Alger Counties saw six drownings in just over a month.

Several of them took place at Picnic Rocks.

The city of Marquette formed a waterfront safety task force as a response to the drownings.

Posted by: Mike Hoey