Under a clear blue sky and next to calm blue waters, on Friday, the family of former Longmont mayor Fred Wilson officially named the Union Reservoir beach after their father and husband.
“Nothing would have pleased him more,” Wilson’s wife, MaryAnn, said before unveiling an official city of Longmont sign declaring the sandy beach head at Union Reservoir as ”Fred’s Beach.”
Former City Manager Gordon Pedrow joined a group of former and present city officials to recall how smitten Wilson was with Union Reservoir, which he worked to make available to the public as a no-wake lake.
Pedrow said he was no friend of water until Wilson cajoled him to try rowing on the reservoir, which he finally did successfully under Wilson’s tutelage. “I am so happy to see the beach dedicated to Fred,” Pedrow said.
Wilson, who died on Jan. 10, served as Longmont’s mayor for four years, 1989-1993, and as a member of the city council for 13 years, 1993-1997 and 2002-2007.
Wilson, a hard working city representative, was always drawn to the waves at Union, in both good and bad weather, his daughter Leah Valentine said. He was constantly making plans to sail, canoe, row or paddle board the reservoir, Valentine said.
“He was always looking for that sweet spot in the weather,” she said. “He had a telescope at home where he could track what was going with the weather at Union.”
“When it was windy and cold, people would be coming off the lake,” Valentine said. “ But my dad was coming onto the lake. All the rangers would say is: “Oh, that’s just Fred.’”
