Camping the ‘perfect activity for the pandemic’
The summer of 2020 may not allow for big vacation plans, but early indications are that there is a pent up demand for camping.
Private campgrounds were allowed to open on May 20, according to Jim Watson, a spokesman for the state Department of Economic and Community Development. And if two Litchfield County campgrounds are any indication, people are eager to see something beyond the inside of their homes, where many have been quarantined since midMarch. Barry Brown, one of the owners of Lone Oak Campsites in East Canaan, said Wednesday that he’s had more interest in campsites than he has available.
The campground has 465 sites spread over 250 acres. But because of uncertainty as to what rules the administration of Gov. Ned Lamont might have in place, Brown said Lone Oak officials have limited the sites that they are letting people use to individuals with recreational vehicles and camping trailers that have their own running water and bathroom facilities.
“We’ve had a lot of interest,” Brown said. “People are anxious to get outside and enjoy themselves.”
Watson said that private campgrounds are allowed to reopen as long “as long as they follow general business rules.” Those rules include:
- Wearing face masks at all times when in public.
- Operating at 50 percent of normal capacity in terms of consumers
- Cleaning bathrooms used by the public multiple times a day and hourly during busy periods.
Brown said Lone Oak is
hot summer days, “you don’t know what’s going to happen if we do open up.”
Orange’s lifeguards won’t wear masks, because they need to be able to get in the water or provide first aid immediately, vonRabenstein said. But arrangements will be made to ensure social distancing between them, and lifeguards who are assigned to monitor occupancy in locker rooms would wear masks, she said.
“We will have some sort of door system with a max of three or four in the space at any given time,” she said. “That’s an area that we now will supervise in ways we haven’t done before.”
Because Orange’s pool is inside, she doesn’t have to share Dixon’s concerns about groups of people hanging out poolside to get a tan, but provisions do need to be made to get people in and out of locker rooms and in and out of the water with minimal interaction.
She said she’s working with the town’s health director and reviewing guidance from USA Swimming to determine those procedures.
In reopening guidelines from the sport’s governing body, facilities are encouraged to “eliminate use of low ventilated spaces and rooms that prevent social distancing,” like locker rooms and dryland rooms. USA Swimming also recommends increasing water sanitation and chlorine levels, and adding “visible markers on the floor to indicate appropriate spacing” on pool decks and in entrances.
The organization also has guidelines for team training and competition, but those won’t resume in Orange until the facility is ready for the public, vonRabenstein said.
“I wouldn’t bring swim teams in if we couldn’t open to the public,” she said, because the town facility is funded by taxpayers and should be available to them first.
While residents have been understanding so far about the closure, “as soon as it gets hot, the number of calls everybody is getting is going to ramp up,” she said. “We’ve been really lucky that it’s been such a cool spring, but that’s going to happen soon. I really want to be open.”
“It’s going to be a challenge,” Dixon said. “I’ve got five pools, one beachfront, 21 different camps and events all over the city, and now a virus.”
Other municipal officials said it’s too early to even consider reopening those facilities, especially with beaches taking a higher priority ahead of Memorial Day weekend.
“It hasn’t really even come up,” said Bill Garfield, Milford’s interim director of recreation. “Right now, we’ve been told that the pools and splash pads are going to remain closed.”
“It could be a little while,” he said of the closure.
Garfield said the department hasn’t begun considering what kind of safety precautions would need to be in place to open a pool or splash pad, because it’s too early to know when that could happen.
“We’ve been so focused on our beaches and trying to keep them safe and ready for the weekend,” he said.