GREENFIELD — With temperatures reaching 99 degrees Fahrenheit in mid-afternoon, Sunday was the busiest day of the year so far for the Green River swimming area, said lifeguard Ryan Blanker.
The playground and basketball court both got heavy traffic, but swimming in the river was clearly the most popular thing to do at the park. Both banks of the river were crowded with groups of people and their lawn chairs, beach towels, picnic setups, boom boxes and so on. Blanker said usually the crowd is not large enough to fill both sides of the river.
“I thought it was going to be busier,” said Bernardston resident Paul Bocko, who was at the river with friends on Sunday.
Blanker said the large crowd was probably partly due to the city’s fencing off of the area around the Eunice Williams covered bridge and pumping station. In recent years, that area has been a popular swimming spot, despite signs around the bridge to discourage swimming near the dam, which is just upriver of the bridge. After receiving complaints from residents last summer about litter and vandalism around the bridge, the city added a new fence in May, hoping it would further discourage swimmers.
On Sunday, there were cars parked on either end of Eunice Williams Road, but few swimmers around the bridge.
But farther north on Green River Road, into the hills of Leyden and Colrain, there were long lines of parked cars and people in bathing suits who did not look lost.
Bernardston resident Stephanie Ciccarello said this year’s closure of the pool at the Northfield Golf Club may have also increased traffic to Greenfield’s swimming area.
“We were thinking of getting a pass for the season (to Green River) because the Northfield pool was closed,” she said.
The Northfield Golf Club’s pool, which was built in 1957, was filled in and turned into a picnic area in May. The Snow family of Leyden, who bought the club in 2014, decided to close the pool after failing for four years to operate the pool without losing money.
Temperatures are forecasted to stay in the 90s through Thursday. Although Sunday was the busiest day yet for the Green River swimming area, lifeguards said that July 4, this Wednesday, would likely be even busier.