West Nipissing council spent some time during their latest meeting talking about reopening’s through the province’s second phase of reopening.
Mayor Joanne Savage says phase two means a lot of consultation between the municipality and public health to make sure everything is safe and physical distancing remains.
“This includes certain municipal infrastructures such as public beaches, splash parks, and recreational facilities like the pool and museum,” she said. “It’s easy to say that all these, we can reopen. As far as the guidelines, the logistics are a little more complicated.”
“As an example, with the museum right now we would be able to reopen it for people to view the exhibits only and it would be by bookings,” Savage continued. “Based on that, further research is being done and determination on if it’s effective and efficient to reopen the facility based on bookings only and only a certain section. So the museum will not be reopening at this time.”
As for the public pools, Savage says those waters remain murky as well.
“The issue about the pool is the logistics are extremely complicated because of the issue of change rooms, washrooms and the sharing of the facilities,” she explained. “There’s still more research being done at this point, and it’s the same process with the splash parks.”
“I know that may not be good news because people would love to use those facilities, including young children, but priority is making sure it is safe for everyone,” Savage added.
However, the Sturgeon Falls public beach will be reopening this weekend, according to the mayor.
“People can expect that there will not be a swimming platform, and an increase of hand sanitizing on-site,” she said. “There will be information shared to the public via our website and municipal Facebook page.”
“We’re doing the best we can and we’re still cognitive that COVID is still here, even if there are new guidelines,” Savage added. “We are taking the extra precautionary measures to make it safe.”