The Province introduced Phase 2 of their Restoring Safe Services – Manitoba’s Pandemic and Economic Roadmap for Recovery on May 22, with more services being allowed to resume sooner than originally thought.
Effective June 1, public pools we’re allowed to open under very strict guidelines. The city is looking to open the pool in early July.
From sinking to swimming
With the health situation the way it was due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it seemed very unlikely that the city would be able to open the Selkirk Park Pool + Splashpad.
“We anticipated that the Province would give us a final say by the end of June, which would give us nowhere near enough time to staff the pool and to ensure the it’s infrastructure is operating properly and have provincial inspections completed,” said Kyla Ray, the city’s Manager of Cultural and Recreational Programs.
“With the go-ahead from the province, we were able to put together a plan that would both keep the users safe, and make the pool financially possible to operate.”
Some of the changes pool users should see to meet provincial regulations include:
- Reducing capacity to 50%.
- Having separate staff monitoring physical distancing and capacity in addition to lifeguards.
- Designating sections on sand and grass as social distancing “pods” for families to safely social distance from others.
- Additional cleaning measures, including a mid-day deep clean closure.
- Social distancing measures for staff training.
- Patron and Staff COVID-19 screening protocol.
- Canceling swimming lessons.
Still busy in the campground
In addition to the pool opening, both the Camp Awesome Day Camp and the Selkirk Park Campground were also given the green light.
While the city has been planning for months of how both will potentially work with physical distancing and heightened sanitation in effect, the city’s Director of Culture, Recreation and Green Transportation (CRGT) Brady Clark said that wasn’t the most stressful part of making these services work.
“The hardest part of this whole thing was changing our registration process from in-person to fully online,” said Clark.
“It’s the way the world is moving, and the pandemic kind of forced our hand to make online registration possible for all our programs. A good portion of parents would register their child either at the day camp or at the CRGT building. We had to do about two months worth of work in about two weeks so registration would be live by the first week of June.”
Follow the rules so everyone has fun
Camp Awesome registration will be live on Friday, June 5 and will run from July 6 – August 28. Signups must be done by the week, as no daily signups will be taken. Space is limited to 16 campers per week.
Registration for the campground is already live and the campground will open on Friday, June 5 for campers.
Special rules will be put in place to keep campground residents safe:
- Increased sanitation practices.
- No visitors to campsites due to limited space to physical distance.
- All bookings and wood orders will be contactless through campground.myselkirk.ca with credit card only.
- Users must bring their own hand sanitizer and other personal hygiene products to campgrounds.
- Pack out what was packed in and leave no trace
- Wear water shoes or sandals while using shower facilities.
To book a campsite, head to MySelkirk.ca/campground.
To sign your child up for Camp Awesome, visit MySelkirk.ca/registration.
