WINDSOR, ONT. -- Splash pads, parks, public tennis and basketball courts in The City of Windsor are now open, but other amenities like baseball diamonds, soccer pitches and beaches are still a ways off for league play, according to city officials.
“Life feels a little bit more normal,” said Ingrid Garabedian, who was at Windsor’s Central Park Tuesday with her grandkids, noting there’s another amenity that opened over the weekend which we take for granted.
“It’s heaven. We don’t have to run home when we need to go to the washroom. It’s great for the kids,” she said.
Other amenities now open include Lakeview Park Marina, with public boat launches to follow this Thursday, skate parks, municipal golf courses and sports fields — with a maximum of five people playing together.
“We’re happy that some of the outdoor recreational amenities can now be opened to the public,” said Ray Mensour, the acting commissioner of Recreation and Culture at the City of Windsor.
But a question mark hangs over indoor facilities like pools, arenas and cultural facilities.
According to Mensour, those can’t open until stage three of the new provincial framework, for which a formal date has yet to be announced.
“It’s hard to plan for this environment as regulations change, interpretations change, we also need to get health unit’s approval,” Mensour said.
Mensour notes league play can’t resume until step two of the provincial framework — estimated to happen sometime early to mid-July.
“We will start grooming the fields once we’re permitted to enter step two when sports leagues can resume,” said Mensour.
The city is taking a three-pronged approach to resuming maintenance activities. First, it must verify that leagues still plan to hold shortened seasons. They must then check with the health unit and council for permission to resume and thirdly, monitor the metrics like vaccination rates and daily case counts.
“We’re constantly monitoring things and reevaluating so it’s difficult to plan but we’re trying to do our best and work with different stakeholders,” Mensour said.
Another complicating factor, noted Mensour, is that many recreation and culture staff have been redeployed to priority areas like the mass vaccination clinics.
“So we’re coordinating with them to see when we can have a lot of our staff return,” he said.
For the time being, Mensour indicated the priority will remain on maintaining outdoor facilities and is gearing up for summer camps at the end of June, after which the focus will shift to outdoor pools and beaches.
