Here’s why hundreds are flocking to Wasaga Beach despite ongoing construction

As the town continues to overhaul its downtown space there is no shortage of crowds along the worlds longest fresh water beach.

Construction continues along the Wasaga Beach downtown core. Despite the noise, hundreds of people are making their way to the longest freshwater beach in the world.

Fencing blocks off some of the main road restricting some tourists and visitors from accessing shops.

Dean Prezio, owner of Pedro’s Gift Shop, said business is slower but is remaining enthusiastic about the rebuild. “We’re a little slower than usual, but it seems to be picking up in the last couple of weekends,” said Prezio. “We just would like everybody to know that we’re here, we’re open.”

Food trucks are also busy this summer season, including Smash & Fried, and are optimistic the construction will be worth the hassle for tourists. “I would say that the barriers between the beach and here create some impact, but the town is working hard on giving signage for the people coming.”

Prezio added he would like to see more signage indicating how to get on the beach.

“They could improve just with local signage, just have a couple of beach access signs with the arrows,” he said. “I don’t mind telling all the tourists how to get to the beach, but I think that if we had some, it would be a lot easier on everybody just to maneuver around all the construction.”

Town officials have recognized the confusion along their beach and have set up an information booth at Beach Area 1 and have added more washrooms to the area.

Brian Smith, Mayor of Wasaga Beach, said more direction is on the way.

“We’ve got more signs on the way to direct visitors and residents to the area here with the food trucks, how to get down to the beach, whether it be at Third Street or Spruce Street, or here in the middle of the Playland parking lot,” he said.

With the end goal of a brand-new modern downtown with convenient access to the beach

“That’s the growing pains with, you know, getting things back to where we need to be to create a community that is not only just a summertime destination for the province, the country, and North America for that matter, but also for our full-time residents,” said Smith.

The fencing process is nearly complete, and Smith added that more garbage cans will also be conveniently placed along the beach.

“We’ll get those garbage cans placed where they’re strategically best, and of course, from an operational standpoint, we can get to them to keep them emptied more often so that we don’t have the garbage problems that we have,” said Smith. “But when you have thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people visiting the longest freshwater beach in the world, that’s one of those things you just deal with.”

Currently construction is working on elevating the downtown area five-feet higher to avoid flooding in the future. Smith went on to say the timeline for completion of the project could be as soon as July of next year.