The City of Penticton is inviting members of the community that are interested to volunteer their time to help cleanup the beaches.
Cleanup efforts will be focused on Marina Way beach, where some of the largest accumulations of debris are found. Volunteers can join city crews on June 21 between 10 a.m. and noon.
“The support from the community throughout this emergency has been outstanding,” said Mayor Andrew Jakubeit. “We’ve received many offers to help and we welcome some assistance with the cleanup.”
With the volume of debris, the city said a lot of the clean up on Marina Way beach will be manual. Volunteers will be asked to place the debris in central areas to assist with pick up by the equipment. Anyone wanting to assist city crews is asked to have leather work gloves, wear closed toe shoes for personal protection and to bring a rake and shovel. City staff will be on hand with wheelbarrows and to co-ordinate volunteer efforts.
City crews returned to the lakeshore this week to continue the cleanup of the beaches on Okanagan Lake.
“We’re doing what we can to restore the beaches for residents and visitors without compromising the flood prevention efforts,” said Len Robson, public works manager.
To date, the city has left much of the debris along the lakeshore to help prevent erosion. With no recent increases in water levels, crews were able to clean Peach Beach and the area in front of the SS Sicamous. Next efforts will focus on portions of Okanagan Lake Park beach. All sandbags and tiger dams will remain in place to prevent flooding and will be removed when it is determined it is safe to do so.