Comfort stations offer some relief in absence of cool centers
EL CENTRO — As local COVID-19 health guidelines have stopped cool centers from opening this summer, cities in Imperial County are providing an alternative.
Cities have designated comfort stations to provide some relief against the heat to local residents. The stations offer shade and a drinking fountain.
As of Wednesday evening, not every city in the county had posted the location of their stations online. Lists that could be found were from the cities of El Centro, Imperial and Brawley.
There are three comfort stations in El Centro: At the entrance of City Hall on Main Street, at the restrooms of Bucklin Park on Aurora Drive and the transfer bus terminal on West State Street.
In Imperial, five stations have been designated — all of which are at the city’s parks.
The five parks are C A Irving Park on 14th Street, Evans Park on Fifth Street, Woof Town on Boley Field Drive, Paseo Del Sol Park on San Felipe Drive and Freddie White Park on Fourth Street.
In Brawley, there are four designated comfort stations. Those stations are Abe Gonzales Park on E Street, Alyce Gereaux Park on Magnolia Street, Hinojosa Park on Cesar Chavez Street and the Brawley Transit Station on Fifth Street.
Although park recreation areas are closed and park use is restricted, the drinking fountains remain open for public access.
It should be noted the water fountain at some of these stations, such as the one at El Centro City Hall, are only available during regular business hours.
It should also be noted that none of these comfort stations offer air conditioning.
These designated areas are what each city is allowed to do under the COVID-19 guidelines.
The Imperial County Public Health Department’s current health officer order states that all non-essential gatherings of any size are prohibited.
It also ordered all non-essential retail businesses to close to in-person shopping.
This means that air-conditioned cool centers being open in the county isn’t possible while the health officer order is in effect.
During the summer of 2019, there were 29 locations throughout the county that were designated as cool centers.
Some of those centers were simply local agencies that opened their doors to function as cool centers.
A popular center was the Imperial Valley Mall food court.
Aside from cool centers, the current county guidelines also have also nixed other refuges from the heat, such as public pools and adult senior citizen centers.