MILWAUKEE — With its secluded location and views of Milwaukee, the beach off Bay View Park is one of Jerry Munley's favorite places in the city.
"It's a spectacular, beautiful beach; hundreds of people come here on the weekend," said Munley, a member of the Bay View Beach Restoration Society.
That's why he and a group of volunteers have spent much of the last decade caring for the beach through the Bay View Beach Restoration Alliance.
On any given day, you'll see them scrubbing away graffiti, cleaning up after illegal bonfires on the sand, or raking debris into piles.
Munley said members of his group rake the debris together and sift through it to find microplastics that pollute the beach.
On Tuesday, more than 20 of these piles lined the beach, each containing several dozen pieces of plastic. In the last eight years, his group has raked hundreds of these piles.
Watch: Bay View Beach volunteers call for more county support for Beach upkeep
That, coupled with glass and burnt wood on the sand from bonfires, frustrates Munley, who said he wants Milwaukee County Parks to do more.
"The problem is there's no focus here. There's no sheriff, there's no police, there's no county park employee on this beach. That is scandalous and I don't know how to do that," Munley said.
Milwaukee County Parks told TMJ4 in a statement that the beach is not a designated swimming area like South Shore Beach or Bradford Beach, so it doesn't receive grooming treatment. They said there is a garbage can that's emptied daily, but Munley thinks it's not enough and is hoping for a bigger commitment from the county.
"What the people here need is a clean barefoot beach without broken glass, without plastics, without tide debris, and that happens at a constant time," Munley said.
For now, Munley will continue to lobby for that attention.
This story was reported on-air by Brendyn Jones and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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