The spray parks at Kiwanis Central Park (pictured) and Strathcona Island Park will reopen to the public on Saturday, along with nearby washroom facilities, the city announced on Friday. Four spray parks in the city have been off-limits under health guidelines meant to stop the spread of the coronavirus.--NEWS PHOTO COLLIN GALLANT
Two spray parks in Medicine Hat will open for public use this weekend, the city’s parks department announced late Friday.
Facilities at Strathcona Island Park and Kiwanis Central Park will see water turned on and nearby washrooms opened Saturday. That comes after health officials moved the province to Stage 2 in a reopen plan in this spring’s pandemic response emergency.
The phase includes indoor and outdoor pools that were not included in a previous stage that included playground equipment and other park recreation equipment, such as workout stations and skate parks.
That caused some controversy and discussion in the community about the difference, but the province confirmed the water features were considered pools and would have their own specific guidelines and requirements for reopening.
Those were released this week, and city officials say the two spray parks can be brought online relatively easy.
“We were able to prepare two of our parks in short order,” said Scott Richter, manager of parks. “We will look to bring on the other two (Ross Glen and Saamis) as quickly as possible, under the constraints of staffing considerations and safety protocols.”
Specific to spray parks, the city will double usual cleaning of washrooms, set timers to run longer (reducing the need to restart water), may remove benches to avoid gatherings, and install signs to advise of personal hygiene and contact requirements.
This week top city officials stated that although recreational facilities would be allowed to open as soon as Friday under the provincial plan, local facilities would come online at futures dates when protocols and operating plans were in place.
The Esplanade Arts and Heritage Centre will open Monday with specific operating rules, but most cultural and recreational facilities of the city remain closed to the public.
“We hope our community understands that it takes all hands on deck to deploy some of these protocols,” said parks and recreation general manager James Will. “(That) means service levels in other areas may decline for a short duration in order to satisfy our community’s yearning for amenities to return.”
While the two spray park washrooms will open, the department states that all other park washrooms remain closed.
