WESTBROOK – It’s been a little more than a month since Westbrook’s Presumpscot River Adventure program began renting kayaks and standup paddleboards along the river, and while the learning curve has been steep, expectations are still high that the rental program will stimulate use of the river even more.

The new, city-installed docks and floating ramps along the Presumpscot are now re-opened after the ongoing rain and stormy weather shut down the waterway access points and kayak rentals June 28 for a week.

According to Maria Dorn, director of community services at the Fred C. Wescott Community Center, the kayak rentals are in line with the original expectations, although she thinks the program will take off more once people get used to the idea of the rentals being available.

“It’s not taken off as much as it’s going to, but we have seen a lot of people on water and we’ve been pleasantly surprised at that,” Dorn said.

The city used $12,000 from the Recreation and Conservation Commission and approximately $13,000 from the Westbrook Environmental Improvement Corp. to purchase and install the docks and floating ramps. Twelve kayaks and two paddleboards were purchased and are now available for rental three times a week at a location near the back of Riverbank Park. The other two docks are installed on Ash and Brown streets and are open for people to launch their own watercraft devices.

Dorn said there have been 21 paid rentals and 95 free rentals since the program started at the beginning of June. So far the peak hours are on Saturdays between 3 and 5 p.m. Dorn said that while last week’s closure may have affected the endeavor, it was the right thing and the best thing to do in the long run.

“As a precaution it was the right thing to do. There are still some unknowns here so it’s better to err on side of safety,” she said.

Sappi Fine Paper had notified the city of an increase in flow rates and higher-than-average water levels due to the recent heavy rains. The high water levels created strong currents moving at roughly 130,000 cubic feet per minute, which creates a dangerous situation because some people would have trouble swimming in that current if they fell off a standup paddleboard or out of a kayak.

“It may have been a conservative move and not entirely necessary to close them, but it would have created a challenge for many swimmers. We wanted to be cautious during this period of uneasy flow,” said Bill Baker, Westbrook’s assistant city administrator for business and community relations.

In the future, when water levels rise and the flow levels reach more than 140,000 cubic feet per minute, the same precautions will be used to close the ramps and floats.

According to Baker, the river peaked at an estimated high flow of 180,000 cubic feet per minute.

Baker said according to information he received from Sappi engineers, the river, moving at 180,000 cubic feet per minute is flowing at an average speed of 1.15 feet per second with a surface speed of 1.7 feet per second at the mid-river point. The average swimmer can achieve a speed of 1 to 1.5 feet per second, he said. This means average swimmers could reach the shore of the 200-foot-wide river, albeit downstream from where they started, even during the strongest speed during last week’s river closure.

“Swimmers especially with PFDs (personal floatation devices), which we require, should have plenty of time to get to the river’s edge before nearing any hazard at Cumberland Mills,” Baker said.