Long-awaited repairs start at Lawrencetown Beach

One of Nova Scotia'smost popular seaside spots is getting some long-awaited repairs to its beach house and parking lot.

The beach house at Lawrencetownhas been without running water for more than a year, leavingonly outhouses and portable toiletsfor surfers and other visitors to the beach, which is located within a provincial park about 30 kilometres east of Halifax.

"Lawrencetownis within a dune system, so it's a little bit more of a challenge to find water in the area, so we had to go outside of the dunes to get it in the wetlands," said Matt Parker, parks director with the Department of Natural Resources.

3 major projects

Parker said if construction remains on schedule, he hopes the water connection should be re-established in about two weeks. The portable toilets will be removed after that.

The parking lot is also getting an upgrade, withcrews layingdown earth and sod in one section to create a picnic area while the remainder is being resurfaced.

The work is expected to take about two weeks, providing workers have access to the site.

"It's a very popular, busy beach so sometimes they don't get a lot of a window to do work before visitors show up," Parker said.

The boardwalk has been ripped up and replaced with a crusher dust trail, which ties in with the Atlantic View Trail surface.

"We were experiencing quite a bit of rot in our boardwalk, which posed a significant health and safety concern for our visitors," Parker said.

"We did regular inspections but it was a challenge to keep up with it."

The province has spent about $80,000 on the three projects so far.

'It's about time'

Author Lesley Choyce, wholives near Lawrencetown Beach and visits regularly to walk and surf, questioned why it's taken more than a year to start the work.

"Some of the other provincial parks are in beautiful shape. If you go to Clam Harbour or Taylor Head, they're wonderfully designed, wonderfully taken care of," he said.

"[Lawrencetown] seems to have gone to the very bottom of the list."

Choyce said "it's about time" the beach underwentimprovements.

"It sounds like the province is on a good track to improve the place and maybe turn it into all of its potential, which is this year-round surf park or place to watch birds and seals and natural phenomena," he said.

Future of Lawrencetown

In mid-September, the province plans tohold public consultations on what beach-goers would ultimately liketo see at Lawrencetown.

"It's really a two-phase approach where we fix the immediate needs to make sure the park can still operate while we determine the future of the park," Parker said.

Even with a new water connection, the beach house is almost at the end of its lifespan andthe public will need to weigh in on what its replacement should look like.

"Whether we renovate or build a new building, we'll still need water services there, so our priority was to re-establish the water, and then we'll look at what facilities we need," Parker said.

Public will have say

The public may also be asked whether more picnic areas should be added or whether access points to the beach should change.

"We don't have any crystal ball on what will come out of those [consultations]," Parker said.

"But Ithink it's important to get the feedback from the users to ensure we build the appropriate facilities to match what the users use it for."