The City of Edmonton has announced its plan to gradually reopen some recreation facilities and arenas starting in July, but first it will begin reopening spray parks this weekend.
“We understand how important these facilities and services are for Edmontonians, especially as people look to bring fun and regular activity back into their lives,” interim city manager Adam Loughlin said. “Our recreation facility reopening plans have balanced those needs with our current public health and our operation and financial realities.”
Four city facilities will reopen their fitness centres and gymnasiums between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. starting on July 6:
- Clareview Community Recreation Centre
- Commonwealth Community Recreation Centre
- Terwillegar Community Recreation Centre
- The Meadows Community Recreation Centre
The reopening date in July for Kinsmen Sports Centre has not yet been determined.
Physical distancing, hygiene practices, hand sanitation and gathering restrictions will apply within facilities.
“We’ve established new cleaning regiments, re-positioned fitness equipment and removed frequently touched items like resistance bands to add to our efforts to create a safe environment,” Community and Recreation Facilities branch manager Roger Jevne said. “We’re all in this together so it’s important everyone plays their part. The most important thing to remember is that if you’re ill, stay home.”
“Reopening the facilities is a three-phased process that includes frequent monitoring and reviewing before we proceed,” Laughlin said. “We’ll be reviewing how this first phase goes and apply lessons learned to the other facilities and services that we’re planning to open in the future.”
The reopening will allow some employees who have been laid off to return to work.
“We’ve begun that process and will provide returning employees the necessary training and support for operating in this new COVID-19 environment,” Laughlin said.
“Reopening facilities includes a return to work or transition from redeployment for approximately 350 city employees from our branch and the city operations department,” Jevne said. “The number of employees returning from temporary layoff will depend on the number of employees transitioning from re-deployments.”
People who want to use a facility will have to pre-book a time slot either online using movelearnplay or by phoning 311.
Those who had their memberships paused in March will have to request to have their memberships reactivated.
“We really have three tiers of pricing and we’re going to drop everything to our lowest tier. That way folks that have those memberships will be able to use Terwillegar, Clareview with their current memberships,” Jevne said.
“The daily prices and the monthly prices will reflect sort of that lowest tier of facilities that we have, to acknowledge that there are less services and amenities available than we normally would have.”
Pricing details are scheduled to be posted online next week.
The city has also announced 25 of its 74 spray parks will open by July, including seven that will open this weekend:
- Callingwood Spray Park
- Castle Downs Spray Park
- G. Edmund Kelly Spray Park
- Glengarry Spray Deck
- Jackie Parker Spray Park
- River Valley Walterdale (Kinsmen District Park)
- South Terwillegar
Access to fitness centres, fitness studios, gyms and courts for select sports and fieldhouses will be available. Outdoor fitness programs are currently offered and more information will be available June 19.
Running tracks inside facilities and indoor playgrounds will not be available. Child minding and indoor instructor/leader-led drop-in classes will not be offered at this time.
Some arenas will also start reopening between July 2 and July 13, including:
- Kenilworth Arena (July 2)
- Clareview Twin Arena (July 2)
- Londonderry Arena (July 2)
- Callingwood Twin Arena (July 2)
- Mill Woods Twin Arena (July 2)
- Castle Downs Twin Arena (July 6)
- Russ Barnes Arena (July 7)
- The Meadows Twin Arena (July 13)
New bookings for summer ice/concrete rentals in eight reopening arenas can resume starting July 2. Bookings already made for July, in those facilities, will proceed. Arenas are available only for bookings. Public skating and shinny hockey will not be offered.
Only four centres will be offering pool access starting July 20:
- Clareview Community Recreation Centre
- Jasper Place Leisure Centre
- Bonnie Doon Leisure Centre
The reopening date in July for the pool at Kinsmen Sports Centre has not yet been determined.
“Aquatic centres will be restricted to modified lane swimming, aquafit classes, swimming lessons, public swim and rentals,” the city said.
“As Edmontonians return to city facilities, they will see and experience a number of differences including limits to how many people can be in a facility. Signage will be in place to help people know what they must do when they come into the facilities.”
Fitness centres were allowed to open in Stage 2 of Alberta’s relaunch plan, which started June 12.
The city closed all city-run rec centres on March 14 to stop the spread of COVID-19.
The number of active COVID-19 cases climbed to 200 in the Edmonton zone on Thursday with 192 of those with city limits. Laughlin said the increase is concerning amid the reopening of some of the city’s facilities.
“We’re cautious and concerned with the increase, which is why every time I’m up here I’m reinforcing that we still need people to be very diligent when it comes to this virus, this pandemic, and to follow the rules. And in this particular case — we’re talking about rec today — to follow the protocols and guidelines that we have in our facilities because we will close if we’re not seeing good behaviour.”