Brawls, drag racing and other reckless behavior have become regular summertime happenings at Ontario Beach Park.
That has led to increasingly robust seasonal measures to curb the disruptions.
But Monroe County wants to take those temporary measures and make them permanent, in ways that would physically alter the park year-round. That includes adding a permanent perimeter fence to control access, plus cameras, additional lighting, a public address system and an electronic message board.
All are part of a more than $13 million plan for which the county hopes to secure significant state funding.
“What we’re doing right now is very seasonal,” Monroe County Executive Adam Bello said, referring to the annual rollout of plastic fencing and mobile camera and lighting units. “This would make some permanent improvements that could stay up year-round.”
The seasonal measures have become increasingly robust at what is far-and-away the county’s most visited park. This Memorial Day Weekend, the Sheriff’s Office also planned to increase patrols and deploy drones to monitor park activities in response to recent fights.
“If they go off again, we are going to try and make as many apprehensions as we can,” Sheriff Todd Baxter said during a news conference Friday.
Law enforcement across the country are struggling to respond to large-scale, pop-up gatherings amplified by social media. The so-called “teen takeovers” were spotlighted recently by The New York Times. The gatherings can be in parks, at shopping malls, in parking lots. At least one of the recent Ontario Beach Park gatherings was promoted on Instagram, drawing several hundred teens and young adults to Charlotte, where multiple fights broke out, recorded by onlookers and shared online.
“A pop-up event can happen very, very quickly,” said Rochester police Capt. Greg Bello, and that is part of the challenge in deploying staff and resources to maintain order.
“Friends go online, and they run into each other and know where they are going to be,” Bello said, but the same is true for those involved in ongoing disputes. “They go hand in hand with each other.”
There is a balance, though.
“You want parks to be welcoming and inviting,” Bello said. “And you also don’t want them to be intimidating to go to, if you go there and just see this security apparatus around you.”
There also is an aesthetic element.
“For fencing the area right now, we have that temporary, almost like snow fencing,” he said. "I’ll be the first one to tell you, honestly, it doesn’t look great. And what we would really prefer is to have more of a permanent fencing there that looks nice, and blends in with the environment.”
The long-term plan for the park also calls for reconstructing the boardwalk and the dilapidated concession sand, renovating the park bathrooms, making ADA-accessible upgrades, a port for algae pumping, and adding outdoor workout equipment, a paved running track and other support features.
Another item on the wish list includes putting permanent or movable walls around what today are open-air shelters to be able to close those facilities after-hours.
“That actually does two things,” Bello said. “One, it does increase the security and the safety factor of those areas. But is also increases the attractiveness of them as well.”
The total project is estimated at $13,250,000.
For comparison, the county has made $17 million in capital improvements across the parks system in recent years, resurfacing roadways and parking lots, re-roofing lodges and shelters and modernizing parks facilities, ensuring ADA compliance.
The plan at Ontario Beach Park, had funding been secured, was to start construction this summer and have all work completed by the end of 2028. But while detailed in an early, joint Monroe County-city of Rochester request for state funding, it did not get a big push in Albany and failed to move forward.
