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City Beaches to Open for the Summer on Saturday

By Nicholas Rizzi | May 21, 2015 5:16pm
 The city will open the beaches for the 2015 summer on Saturday.
The city will open the beaches for the 2015 summer on Saturday.
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DNAinfo.com/Stephanie Keith

SOUTH BEACH — The city's beaches will officially open for the season on Saturday.

The Parks Department announced on Thursday that the beaches will open on Memorial Day weekend and New Yorkers can swim at them from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. until the Labor Day weekend.

Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver visited Staten Island's South Beach on Thursday ahead of the opening and announced the agency's new initiative, "Be WaterSafe," to reduce the number of people who drown at city beaches.

"Last summer, we unfortunately had four drownings," Silver said. "We all grew up in schools where they taught us how to cross the street, how to be safe but we're in a city that lives in and around water, we want to make sure that we're all safe."

Aside from opening the beaches, the Parks Department also introduced their new borough commissioner for Staten Island, Lynda Ricciardone, who replaces Adena Long who left the post in December.

"As somebody who was born and raised here, I can tell you that our local parks really had an impact on my life," Ricciardone, who's worked at Parks for nearly 30 years.

Ricciardone said this year Parks will reopen Playland Playground, damaged by Hurricane Sandy, and put the finishing touches on the "Midland Beach Splaza" by adding the spray showers.

Last year, nearly 18 million people visited the city's 14 miles of beaches, Silver said.