Scott Swanson
County parks staff last week began installing water safety barriers around the swimming area at Lewis Creek Park.
The county decided to install the barriers last year after two 6-year-old children were struck while swimming in that location by a runaway personal watercraft.
One, Zach Maynard, later died in a Portland hospital of his injuries. Kennedy Swenson was seriously injured but survived, after suffering multiple broken bones and dental injuries.
Rachel Maynard, Zach’s mother, had joined the county Parks Commission shortly before the tragedy, which law enforcement officials ruled last fall, after an “extensive investigation,” was a tragic accident. She said last week that she was “super thankful” that the barriers were going in.
County Parks Director Brian Carroll said the “Tuffboom” small craft barriers, manufactured by Worthington Products, are “a rather unique device designed particularly to stop boats getting close to dams.” In 2001, the barriers were initially designed to prevent waterborne terrorist attacks, according to Worthington. Since then, they have been improved used at naval facilities, nuclear power plants and water supply dams.
Cost of the barriers, not including labor by parks employees who are installing the structures, totals about $250,000, he said.
Carroll said the barrier will entirely enclose the swim area at the park. Eventually, he said, a gate will be installed to allow kayaks and paddleboards to launch from the beach.
“Our primary focus right now is providing improved safety around the swim area, particularly after the tragedy that happened last summer,” Carroll said.
He said he’s not specifically aware of any other accidents like what occurred at Lewis Creek happening in Oregon, but he said a “hauntingly similar incident” can be found on Google, in which a person on a beach was killed by a runaway personal water craft in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
But Oregon has had other boating accidents, “for sure,” he said.
“The idea is that the swim area will be enclosed by this barrier,” Carroll said.
The boom will actually extend 50 feet beyond the current swim area, which will not change, establishing a “no-go area for boats, he said.
As of Friday, booms had been installed on the westward side of the swim area, which is where the runaway watercraft came from last summer.
“We’re still working on putting it in,” Carroll said. “It’s a fairly elaborate system that takes quite a bit to install. We’re installing it as quickly as we can.”
He said the bumpers are secured to “fairly elaborate” concrete anchors in the water, which include eco blocks.
“It will take a while to get them in,” he said.
Maynard said she visited Lewis Creek last week with her younger son William, 4, to take a look at the project.
“He was like, ‘Can we go swimming?’ I said, ‘No, not till it’s fully in,'” she said.
Maynard said she was involved “from the beginning” in the effort to install a safety barrier and credited parks Operations Supervisor Tristan Davis, who “did all the research.”
“He was fantastic,” she said. “I remember calling him and saying, ‘This is my Zach and we need to fix this.’ He got all the information to me and essentially got my opinion.
“It’s beautiful.”