Swimming beach at Bay Beach possible but years away

GREEN BAY, WI – (WGBW) – A federal grant of 2.4 million dollars will allow Green Bay to build a wildlife viewing platform at Bay Beach Amusement Park. With the viewing platform, people may start hoping for a swimming beach at Bay Beach as well. Green Bay Parks Director Dan Ditscheit told the Green Bay Parks committee if a beach is in the cards, it’s several years away.

Ditscheit said water monitoring shows the water quality has improved at Bay Beach.

“We’ve been testing. The last results we’ve gotten – It can be a swimmable beach if we ever were to build one there. The question becomes how many days would the beach be open or closed depending on E. Coli levels and algae blooms and stuff like that,” Ditscheit said.

The question of building a sand beach is in Phase Two of the Bay Beach improvements. The Green Bay City Council voted in 2018 to raise 7 million dollars through loans and fundraising to build a pier, boardwalk, bathhouse, parking lots, and a sand beach. Then in 2020 they divided the project into two phases: Phase One – the viewing platform and engineering work and Phase Two – a sand beach.

Ditscheit said the city wants to pay off some of the loan for Phase One before looking at putting in the sand beach.

“And that after that, we can then look at other opportunities to build the beach, after that. But the key is to pay off as much debt as we can in 2026, and this (the grant) will help us get to that point,” said Ditscheit. 

The Green Bay City Council will vote on whether or not to accept the grant for the viewing platform at its meeting on Tuesday, October 1 at 6 pm.