(Photo: Town of Sylvan Lake)

By Sheldon Spackman

Stay Home

Sylvan Lake amenities remain closed for May Long Weekend

May 13, 2020 | 2:53 PM

The May Long Weekend is typically heralded as the unofficial kick-off to the summer season. But officials with the Town of Sylvan Lake are reminding central Albertans to not come for a visit, and to stay home in their own communities for now.

With a large number of amenities still closed to the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Director of Emergency Management Ron Lebsack, says having visitors in Sylvan Lake at this time would simply overwhelm places like their beaches or lakefront area.

He acknowledges that it’s a tough ask, especially for those with seasonal properties in the community.

“There are a huge number of those people, as well as the number of day visitors that come out,” says Lebsack.

“Our lakefront, although we can’t say it’s closed, we don’t have any of our amenities open,” he explains. “So there’s no washrooms available, there’s no parking lots available – they’ve been blocked-off, picnic shelters and picnic tables are all blocked-off.”

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Lebsack says the lakefront is really only open at this time for permanent residents to take a stroll while maintaining physical distancing.

“Everything else is closed or closed-off to the public right now,” he notes. “Certainly, there will still be visitors coming and we can’t prevent that, but we recommend that they don’t. We will have enforcement out there making sure that they are maintaining physical distancing, no group gatherings, no big picnics in the park or anything like that. Those will be dispersed by enforcement.”

Preventative measures currently in place to discourage non-residents from flooding Sylvan Lake’s small waterfront park include:

· All public washroom facilities closed

· All playgrounds, and sport park/amenities closed

· Sporting activities are not permitted, green spaces and trails are for individual use only, and proper social distancing is being enforced

· Picnic shelters are closed

· All events and gatherings are cancelled until further notice

· Additional measures may be implemented, as needed

On May 8, The Town of Sylvan Lake released its own local “Safely Staged Municipal Amenity Relaunch Plan”.

Stage one of the Town’s plan to relaunch public amenities commences May 14, and incudes the reopening of the following public amenities, with new health and safety measures in place:

· Sylvan Lake Off-leash dog park; open with sanitizing stations, and casual supervision to ensure public health orders are followed;

· Sylvan Lake Disc Golf Park; open;

· Sylvan Lake Skate and Action Sports Park; open with formal supervision to ensure public health orders are followed.

Again, playgrounds, public washrooms, and the public waterfront parking lots remain closed, and are a part of the Town’s Stage Two plans – triggered when the Province announces a date for their Stage Two.

“We’re going to follow the province’s lead on when we kind of open up,” says Lebsack. “We’re not taking any bookings for lakefront parks, there’s no washrooms available, no picnic shelters, no picnic tables, and no parking lots, so when people come to town, there will be no lots. The other thing to include is that when they do come to town, paid parking is still in effect.”

“We’re keeping it open obviously for residents, we do encourage them to go out for a walk,” he concludes. “But again with no parking lots, no washrooms available, we’re just recommending that people don’t come and visit us now. Wait until later on in the summer when things open up. We’d love to have you then.”

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