We held a beach party at Round Lake Beach this past Saturday to celebrate the re-opening of Round Lake Beach. This is a great photo from the event. Back by the rope is Mayor Phil Young. That’s one of his boys with him. He helped christen the beach by taking a dip in the lake himself. On the right is Council Member Brad Aho. Council Member Aho came to the party right from a Saturday morning meeting. He did not have to time to change, so he didn’t. He helped christen the beach in formal business swimming attire. Very nice. A perfect Minnesota beach scene, if you ask me.
The beach is re-opening this summer after three years of closure due to weeds, geese and water quality problems. During the three years of closure, we’ve gotten a much better handle on what positively effects the water quality of Round Lake. Council Member Aho has been a particularly strong advocate for getting the lake cleaned up. He pushed staff and the Watershed District for solutions that were both effective and cost-effective. He supported a study of the lake that produced solutions that did not involve the installation of a permanent alum station at the lake. We also addressed upstream erosion run-off issues and wildlife issues. It worked. Water quality at Round Lake is the best it’s been in over five years. Maybe ten.
The end result of all this work is that Round Lake is swimmable and fishable again. Good work to all involved.
