Warning signs were installed Monday at Willow Grove to alert swimmers about the hazards of the Columbia River following last month’s drowning of a 22-year-old Longview man.

Cowlitz County park maintenance workers put up the first 14 of 35 new signs at the park in response to the July 28 drowning of 22-year-old Gonzalo Reyes Sisneros. The signs offer warnings in both English and Spanish.

“The goal of the signs is to educate,” said Ron Junker, Cowlitz County parks maintenance director. “We do not encourage swimming at the park because of the hazards. People need to be aware of the currents if they go in the water.”

More than 20 people have drowned at Willow Grove since 1990. Sisneros was the fourth person to drown this summer in Cowlitz County’s rivers, and the second to perish in the Columbia.

The 35 new signs cost about $4,300, or about $123 per sign, Junker said. The remaining 21 signs will be installed by Aug. 28, he said.

The sign idea was hatched last week at a meeting of the county’s parks advisory board, which is trying to improve water safety in the area.

Many swimmers at Willow Grove didn’t notice the new warning signs Monday afternoon but were wary of the swimming in the river.

Rich Hadley made sure his 5-year-old son, Chase, was wearing a life jacket as the two walked along the shore.

“He doesn’t go out there without me, and he doesn’t go out there without a life jacket,” said Hadley, a 38-year-old Longview resident.

Hadley had heard about Sisneros’ drowning, and he said he doesn’t know what else can be done to raise awareness. Children should be required to wear life jackets at Willow Grove, but adults are responsible for their own safety, he said.

Jim Fraser, a 59-year-old Weyerhaeuser Co. employee, didn’t notice the signs either, but he said he’s swam in river long enough to understand the danger.

“It’s a matter of caution and being aware of your surroundings,” he said.

The current grows strong quickly when large ships pass through the channel, which some swimmers don’t realize, Fraser said.

The best warning, he suggested, might be a picture of a drowning victims, but he quickly backed off the idea.

“They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But I don’t think it’s kosher to have a picture of a drowning person,” Fraser said.

Junker, the county parks director, said he had two phone calls last week from people upset the county is using public money to post signs in Spanish at the local park.

“I told them if I was vacationing in France, and I didn’t speak French, I would want to know if the waters I was swimming in were dangerous. They understood where I was coming from and the conversations ended positively,” Junker said.

The parks department, along with the Safe Kids Lower Columbia Program, is also putting four new loaner life jacket kiosks at swimming locations in the area. The group is also airing radio public service announcements about the dangers of the water.