Huntington Beach Crowd Is Smaller Than City Hoped : Coast: Despite assurances that water is safe, turnout is only half the usual number for a Saturday before Labor Day.

It was the dawn of the Labor Day weekend and Pauline Dabbs wasn’t going to let a little bacteria get in the way of her beloved end-of-summer tradition--packing up the family and heading to Surf City.

Fortunately, Huntington Beach was reopened just in time for the holiday by the health officials who last month shut down more than four miles of shoreline because of contamination.

Dabbs, 56, of Las Vegas, had expected to find the beach jammed with people who had gone so long without access to the water.

But instead of fighting for a space on the beach or standing in long lines at the concession stands, she arrived to find the coast unusually clear. The trickle of visitors was more typical of a midwinter day than summer’s last hurrah.

“It’s kind of sad. . . . It’s usually really crowded. It was so crowded two years ago that we lost Nicholas,” said Dabbs, referring to her husband.

The crowd at Huntington Beach on Saturday was estimated at about 40,000, about half the average number in past years, Marine Safety Lt. Michael Beuerlein said.

Merchants, visitors and officials believe that the low turnout was caused by many factors, including the chance that some people made other plans because the shore was closed for so long.

But the main reason, they say, is probably that people still are skeptical about the water’s safety.

“We really didn’t know what to expect, given the circumstances,” Beuerlein said. “But we were hoping for more.”

Many downtown merchants have suffered financially since the closure and say they would have been economically devastated had the coast not reopened by this weekend. Sales usually increase about 50% during the three-day Labor Day weekend.

Store owners organized sidewalk sales and other activities, hoping to attract visitors just in case the beach remained closed. As an incentive, city officials also lowered parking fees from $7 to $1.

Parking lot attendant Brooke Dietrich barely had enough to do Saturday. She kept herself busy by reading a travel guide about Mexico, her next vacation destination.

“I think people are scared,” she said of this year’s sparse beach crowd. “I don’t really blame them. I wouldn’t get in the water.”

Richard Barnard, deputy city administrator, said that Huntington Beach is among the most heavily monitored sections of the California coast and that it was not possible health officials “would open up anything just because some merchants want it open.”

Although tests Saturday continued to show safe bacteria levels, surfer Shinjuro Hori, 49, still refused to ride the waves.

“It’s real convenient that it just opened up during the Labor Day weekend,” he said. “I know they say it’s safe, but I don’t want to take a chance.”