KEYSTONE HEIGHTS – Five days a week between ages 5 and 12, Valerie Alvers took a trip to Keystone Beach. The summer sun, complemented by the glistening water, greeted her as she set up for another swimming lesson.

Now, at age 57, she takes in the fresh air along the beach’s shoreline as time seems to slow down just in time for Easter.

The Keystone Heights community welcomed the “soft” reopening of the popular Keystone Beach Friday in celebration of Easter last Sunday. The town hosts an annual Easter sunrise on it in cooperation with local churches. The beach has been closed for about two months due to renovations, said City Manager Lynn Rutkowski.

“We were in desperate need of an upgrade,” Rutkowski said.

It will feature a recently built music stage, a new pavilion, Wi-Fi and outdoor plug-in outlets.

“It’s (Keystone Beach) just definitely a landmark that our town is blessed to have,” Alvers said. “(It’s) something that has united and brought many people together through the years.”

Alvers has been a Keystone lifelong resident and is the fourth generation in her family living in the town. She’s been visiting the beach since she was a child. “It has stood the test of time for many generations,” she said.

Taking swimming lessons wasn’t all she did. She danced around the pavilion and relaxed on the sand as she fished.

The beach brings the community together, Alvers said. “It would be a real loss for us not to have it.”

Though some renovation projects have been in the making for months, ongoing vandalism around the beach has pushed for an immediate restoration.

Alvers has seen the vandalism directly impacting the establishment; It takes place every one-to-two months, she said.

“I’m not quite sure why we haven’t been able to put a halt to that,” Alvers said. “It is an issue for sure that’s creating havoc for everybody.”

People have removed sinks from walls, clogged drains and stolen toilet paper from the stalls. A lot of those who vandalized were teenagers from other towns just passing through, Rutkowski said.

The restrooms will be vandalism-resistant, mirroring the quality of prison bathrooms in using materials such as stainless steel, Rutkowski said. Better security cameras have been put in place, too.

Rutkowski is proud of the renovations and anticipates community activity with the reopening.

“It warms my heart when I go past and people are using it on the weekends and they’re enjoying the swimming area,” Rutkowski said.

The City of Keystone Heights Public Works team is responsible for the upkeep of the beach and the surrounding park, and they do a fantastic job, Rutkowski said. They stop by once a day to clean the area.

The project was pricey for Keystone Heights, however. With an annual operating fund of about $800,000, Keystone Heights’ local government spent about $1 million on the project, Rutkowski said. They received the funding for the project from multiple sources, such as the Capital Improvement Projects and the town’s local dollars.

“This is truly a gift,” she said.

The town wants to make the beach’s pavilion a community center for Keystone Heights residents and pull in tourists from Jacksonville and Orange Park. It plans on renovating the kayak launch area.

The local government opened the beach on Good Friday and Easter for services.

Keystone Beach closed during the initial outbreak of COVID-19 but thrived soon after as a result of ecotourism. The town became popular during the pandemic for its trails, parks and outdoor facilities.

“The beach has always been really the cornerstone of the lake region,” Rutkowski said.

The beach will again close temporarily for an international motorized surfboard racing event hosted by Jetsurf USA Friday-through-Sunday on Lake Geneva, although fans are encouraged to watch from the shoreline while staying out of the water. Still, the area will be under 24-hour surveillance as the city braces for as many as 5,000 MotoSurf and MotoSkate fans descending to the area.

The beach then officially will open on Tuesday.

“We’re very much looking forward to bringing people in from all over the world to come and enjoy our beach,” Rutkowski said.

Councilman Tony Brown is thrilled by the reopening of the beach and the new renovations.

“I mean, I’m tickled for all the changes we’ve done and the way that beach and the pavilion looks,” Brown said.

He takes pride in the renovations. “People gonna be real excited about what we’ve done,” Brown said.

Jade Wolfe, 24, helped renovate the beach three years ago to make it more eye appealing.

Wolfe, along with other volunteers, painted some of the beach’s picnic tables in June 2019 to spruce up the area. Bright blue, green and pink paint lit up the tables surrounding the beach.

“It felt like legal vandalism but in a very good way,” Wolfe said.

Though the tables have been painted back to their original colors, she’s excited about what the new renovations have to offer.

“I’ve peaked a little bit and some of it is definitely foreign for me, but I’m looking forward to a reopening and to see what’s happened,” Wolfe said.

Wolfe is a lifelong Keystone Heights resident who doesn’t recall any beach closure up until about the last four years. She’s also noticed vandalism on the rise in the area.

“A good part of it has to do with kids thinking that they don’t have anything better to do in this town,” Wolfe said.

She doesn’t excuse their behavior, however.

“It’s such a small community. It’s not something that should be done here.”

Wolfe did not mind if the renovations were not done by Easter. She prefers a good-looking beach over a rushed one.

“I’m letting them take their time,” she said. “I want it to be nice. I’m not trying to rush them.”

Wolfe’s parents, Amy and Steve Wolfe, have frequented Keystone Beach since middle school and have hosted family birthday parties in the area.

“It (Keystone Beach) definitely carries a heavy dose of nostalgia with it,” Wolfe said. “I think that it has since its emergence. It’s definitely a social point.” Wolfe said.

The reopening brings back core memories at the beach.

“It has created so many people’s childhoods,” she said. “I don’t know what our childhoods would have been like it didn’t exist.”