Cobourg’s beach on Lake Ontario is a popular summertime destination for thousands of tourists and local residents.
The town is in the midst of revisiting its waterfront master plan and is looking to ramp up interest in the area and find ways to create a revenue stream from the beach.
Concerns have been raised that visitors who use the beach often don’t support local businesses at the same time.
Now Cobourg council has voted to hire a Peterborough company, At the Lake Distributing, to install an inflatable waterpark at the beach, featuring swings, slides and trampolines.
“Resorts [and] campgrounds jumped on the bandwagon — now we are seeing towns and municipalities utilizing their waterfront and really bringing a lot of people to a town,” said At the Lake president Jason Pulchinski.
Built by Aquaglide, the proposed waterpark will have separate sections for young children and caregivers and for older children and adults.
Visitors will pay $10 to $15 for two hours at the water park. The Town of Cobourg would receive 10 per cent of the gross income from ticket sales.
On Monday, council voted to enter into contract negotiations with At the Lake to install the attraction.
“I think this is great — the fact you can be in the water to watch your young kids and have something for the whole family to enjoy, so I think it’s a really well put-together proposal,” said councillor Aaron Burchat.
Pulchinski said the waterpark will prove to be a great draw for the town and its businesses.
“If they are transient boaters coming from Toronto to the Trent Severn Waterway, they may plan their schedule to stay an extra day because of the waterpark.”
The waterpark is scheduled to open on June 23 and will operate seven days a week until Labour Day.