Renovations to the Oakland Beach outdoor showers in Rye Town Park have resumed after stalling out following the collapse of a retaining wall.
Work that town of Rye officials had hoped would be done so beachgoers could use the showers by Memorial Day is now on track to be finished for the July 4 beach crowds, officials said.
The outdoor shower area work is part of a larger $383,000 renovation project funded by state grants to restore the buildings and facilities that date to 1910. The beach building complex is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Work on the outdoor shower area was halted, explained Rye Town Administrator Debbie Reisner, when an “unintended consequence of demolition of the retaining wall was that the adjacent shower area fell apart. Over the course of multiple capital projects at our 100 plus year-old Park, this has become a familiar pattern.
“Once that occurred, it was necessary to obtain building permits to reconstruct it,” she said. “Building permits are the jurisdiction of the City of Rye. The process of architectural design and permitting was complex and time consuming.”
She added that the “contractor completed work on the retaining wall in time for our Memorial Day deadline,” but had to pause “until the necessary permit could be issued by the city. The contractor is now on site and working.”
Until work is completed, crowds of beach goers will only have access to two shower facilities, one at the middle entrance ramp to the beach and the other at the north gate, closest to Playland Beach.
Once complete, the new shower and retaining wall area will complement other notable repairs at the public beach that serves residents of Rye City, Rye Town, the Village of Port Chester, and Rye Neck. A restored bathhouse offers clean new restrooms and is now the site what Reisner called the “public-facing offices” of the park, including those for beach permits, park director, and park ranger captain.
Private funds raised by the Friends of Rye Town Park have made possible the restoration of the exterior beach complex steeple, an iconic feature of the Spanish mission-style buildings. As Diana Page of the Friends group has said, this a “golden age of investment and improvement for this precious jewel by the sea.”
Still to be determined is the best future use of the interior tower building, currently closed and dilapidated. The Town of Rye hopes to obtain grant funding for a feasibility study to consider alternatives, Reisner said.
