Fulton families are doing a good job at maintaining social distancing at the pool and splash pad, said Clay Caswell, Parks and Recreation department head.
Oestreich Swimming Complex and the Memorial Park splash pad opened last Friday, and Caswell updated Fulton City Council members on how it's gone so far Tuesday evening.
Social distancing measures are in place at the pool, which is open noon-3 p.m., closed for cleaning and reopened from 4-7 p.m. There's an occupancy limit of 65 swimmers and frequent sanitizing of surfaces. Each visitor must give their name and number upon admission to enable contact tracing should an outbreak occur.
To limit the potential spread of the disease via surfaces, the drinking fountain is turned off, the slide and diving board are closed, and lounge chairs and picnic tables have been removed from the deck. Patrons may bring their own chairs and beach towels. The concession stand sells only prepackaged food and drinks.
"So far, we're averaging 41 swimmers per session at the pool," Caswell said. "So the attendance has been pretty good. The staff is doing a lot of cleaning, a lot more cleaning than we've done in the past."
The splash pad, which also opened Friday, is unsupervised and not fenced, meaning the city has no practical way to limit the number of guests.
"As expected, it's been pretty busy," Caswell said.
Mayor Lowe Cannell said when he's driven past the splash pad, he's seen parent keeping their children spread out.
"That's good to see; hopefully that'll stay that way," he said.
Also last weekend, the city hosted its 15th annual youth fishing tournament at Veterans Lake.
"We had 44 kids out there and they caught about 360 fish, lot of social distancing going on there," he said. "It was a good time."
The youth baseball and softball leagues started Monday.
"For the most part the fans seem to be spreading out and they're using their own chairs," Caswell said. "We spread the kids out in the dugout as much as we can. We're taking every safety precaution we think are reasonable."
City playgrounds remain closed, but the city plans to reopen them Monday. City employees will regularly spray down and sanitize playground equipment. Ward 4's Bob Washington suggested posting signs to remind visitors they're responsible for their own safety and asking them to wipe down equipment they used. Caswell said that was doable.
"At some point we're going to have to depend on the community and citizens to look after themselves," he added.
As of Tuesday, the Callaway County Health Department had recorded 31 cases of COVID-19 in the county. Two new cases were reported over the weekend. Of the 31, 23 individuals have recovered and seven cases are still active.