The need to remove the concrete pier at Center Lake beach comes down to two reasons that aren’t new concerns: E. coli and safety.
Ten years ago, the Lilly Center for Lakes & Streams studied the causes of elevated E. coli levels at the public swimming beaches at Center and Pike lakes.
“We were noticing that Pike and Center lakes tended to be closed more often than some of the other public swimming beaches around Kosciusko County,” Dr. Nate Bosch, director of the Lilly Center, said in an interview Wednesday at his office.
There are seven public swimming beaches in the county.
“So we then talked to the Health Department, who was doing those E. coli sampling, and they’ve continued on to this day doing the E. coli sampling at those beaches. They gave us all of their data, and so we analyzed it and found that over a third of the time, those two beaches in particular were closed due to high E. coli levels,” he said.
That told them that something was going on with Center and Pike beaches, compared to the other five, and the Lilly Center staff wanted to figure out what was happening and why. Bosch said they contacted the K21 Health Foundation, who funded the research study to get to a conclusion to fix the problem because it’s a human health concern with the E. coli.
“We looked at those two beaches, and we found in both cases, unlike all of the other public swimming beaches, those two beaches have concrete piers that go all the way from top down to the bottom of the lake. And both of those piers are oriented out in a westerly direction,” he stated.
Gulls & Recommendations
As part of the 2014 study, their hypothesis was that because the wind typically comes from the west, the warm surface water was being pressed up into a stagnant pocket against the pier and just sits there. The E. coli accumulates there over time with no place to go.
“When we sampled then, to test our hypothesis, we found, indeed, that these locations ... in Center Lake and in Pike Lake - those samples that are right in that intersection between pier and beach, those were the highest E. coli measurements, so that supported our hypothesis,” Bosch explained.

    A flock of gulls scatter off the Pike Lake pier Wednesday as the photographer approaches them for a photo. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union
  

They then wanted to find out the source of the E. coli in the first place.
On the piers - as well as along the beaches - were usually lots of bird droppings from gulls, geese and ducks. Bosch said they did some DNA testing on the E. coli and found that it was connected to gulls. They tested the E. coli DNA against human but that wasn’t a positive match. Testing it against dogs, there was no hit on that. They also tested against geese and ducks, but the positive test was with the gulls.
From the study came three recommendations.
First, the Center looked at how the Warsaw Parks and Recreation Department was managing the beach. The department previously was just tilling the sand and the bird feces would just be pushed under the surface, with the E. coli still there to make its way back into the lake. Now, the department uses a different machine that picks up debris, like gull droppings, and puts it in a hopper to be disposed of later.
Another recommendation was to reduce the gull population, but that wasn’t a politically feasible option at that time.
The third recommendation was changing the engineering of the piers - either removing them and putting different types of piers in, or boring holes in the concrete to allow for the water to circulate. The second option was seen as a safety hazard and the holes would eventually clog up.
Bosch said they had the same recommendation for the Pike Lake pier to be removed.
“We did find, indeed, the pier structures, the way that they’re engineered, did create that sort of stagnant water, which then led to higher E. coli levels there,” he said.
Piers & Money
On Monday, the Warsaw Common Council approved the transfer of $400,000 for the street department, which included $250,000 for the removal of the Center Lake pier. Public Works Superintendent Dustin Dillon indicated the bids for the work would be opened Nov. 1, with the city’s Indiana Department of Natural Resources permit to remove the pier expiring in April.
In a separate interview, City Planner Justin Taylor said the removal of the Center Lake pier was part of the initial Center Lake Trail project. When the city solicited bids for the trail project, they included the base bid and several alternate items in case the project came in over budget, which is a common practice for larger projects.
“We knew we wanted to do the trail project because we got a $1 million donation from the Sasso family, so they were the driving force behind us being able to even do the project initially. But we knew we had that limitation of the $1 million as the cap,” Taylor said.

    The shoreline restoration project the city underwent at Center and Pike lakes keeps geese and ducks away, thus reducing the chances of elevated E. coli levels in the water. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union
  

Working within the limits of the Sasso donation, he said the city wanted to do as much of the project as possible.
“As part of that project was the removal of the existing pier because of the problems with the E. coli and the aging of it. It’s heating in spots, it’s becoming unsafe,” Taylor said.
The addition of two other piers - on the south side where the former water plant used to be and on the north side where the trail ends near the boat launch off Ind. 15 - also were part of the initial project. Those piers would enable people to dock boats, fish and other activities.
The pier removal and the addition of the north and south piers were carved out because the city couldn’t afford them based on the budget they had to work with.
Taylor acknowledged the Center Lake pier has served the community very well over the last 60-plus years, but he said it’s time to “update that pier to something that the DNR would even allow us to build, because the current pier that’s out there - they wouldn’t allow that pier to be built today.”
Going forward, Taylor said the first step is to get the existing pier out. “But we’re definitely looking for funding for the addition of the two piers that were part of that initial project. So our goal is to complete the project over time. We don’t know exactly where that funding is going to come from, but we’re hoping to partner with local entities to accomplish the entirety of the project,” he said.
As for the Pike Lake pier, Taylor said the city doesn’t have any active permits with the DNR to remove that and no immediate plans to remove it. He said they do want to address it over time.
“So there’s been a lot of work done with stabilizing the bank on Pike and just enhancing that lake and looking at water quality as the water comes into the lake, but we haven’t identified a funding source to remove the pier on Pike Lake,” Taylor said.
If the city replaces the piers, as financial resources are available, Bosch said the replacement piers should allow for water to flow under or through it so there’s not the same stagnation problem.
Back in early July, Center Lake beach was closed for a day due to unsafe levels of E. coli., the first time in nearly seven years. Bosch said it’s been extremely rare that those beaches have been closed since the management of the beaches has changed.
“So that’s a great success story of where the applied research that we do here at the Lilly Center can lead to changes for the better in our lakes that can be measured and enjoyed by the public,” he said.
Beaches & Samples
Some of the other public swimming beaches in the county still have elevated E. coli levels.
Winona Lake every once in a while will have elevated levels, but it doesn’t have a pier that’s solid all the way down, although Winona is in its own little protected cove. Winona Lake is also right by Cherry Creek and Cherry Creek has elevated E. coli levels at times as well.
Waubee Lake in Milford sometimes has elevated levels. “We’ve noticed algae toxin levels elevated at the beach up at Waubee at times as well. And Waubee, similarly, the swimming beach is up at the north end of the lake, a little bit sheltered from other parts of the lake, so that could have something to do with it there, too,” Bosch said.
The Kosciusko County Health Department samples beaches weekly and has the responsibility to test pools and other water bodies for E. coli. The Lilly Center samples the beaches as well as the open lakes themselves weekly through the summer. Lilly Center also samples streams that flow into the lakes every two weeks throughout the year.
The Environmental Protection Agency threshold for E. coli is 235 cfu (colony forming units) per 100 milliliters (mL). That’s 235 E. coli bacteria cells in less than one-half cup of water.
The Lilly Center report on the 2014 study can be found on their website at https://lakes.grace.edu/.
Bosch said that while the study was done 10 years ago, the data still holds true to today.
“The pier is still the same as it was 10 years ago. The winds are still going to be similar than it was. We’ve changed some of the sources of E. coli by changing how the beaches are managed every morning now, which is a really great thing that the city did,” he said.
Rusty Martinez, Lilly Center assistant director of marketing, pointed out they collaborated with the city of Warsaw on native plant shoreline restoration along Pike and Center lakes. That work is helpful to keep geese and ducks away from the shorelines because water fowl likes to hang out where they can see a predator coming from a long distance away.
“By the city working on the shoreline restoration with us, it’s led to less source of E. coli in the first place,” Bosch said.
Certain areas were left to be more clear for fishing and activities like that. “You want good fishing, we need a good lake, right?” Martinez said.
Bosch noted that the Lilly Center has done research on the economic value of the lakes in Kosciusko County. The last study found that the lakes bring in over $313 million every year into the county. Since that study was done a few years ago, he said that number is certainly higher today.