Before the pool inside the Park at East Hills reopened on July 6, crews spent “two and a half weeks” preparing it in line with state standards, village Mayor Michael Koblenz said.
Koblenz and the village Board of Trustees put together a comprehensive plan for the debut, while adhering to social distancing and other guidelines.
“We had to remove in excess of 150 chairs, tape down the areas for social distancing, limit people in the restrooms, and create a way have to make reservations for swimming,” Koblenz said in a phone interview.
The village is limiting use of the pool to East Hills residents only, with no guests being allowed due to limited space on the pool deck caused by social distancing. Two hundred residents are allowed at the pool.
Households who wish to go to the pool are required to register for a session online, and have the options of a morning session from 10 a.m. to noon, an afternoon session from 1 to 3 p.m. and an early evening session from 4 to 6 p.m., with an hour between each session for sanitizing.
“We spray down the chairs after every session; it’s a process,” Koblenz said.
When arriving for their sessions at the pool, households will be asked to sign a form that they have not had certain symptoms. Temperatures will also be taken, Koblenz said.
“We’re taking a lot of precautions,” he said. “The feedback from the residents is that they’re very happy, and so we’ll continue on.”
Some elements of the park, like the pool’s slides, won’t be opened, Koblenz said. Opening the Park Grill, he said, proved to be impossible to figure out.
“You have to figure out how many people can you have, everything having to do with food preparation. There were a million questions,” he said.
The mayor said that some residents are asking him to reopen the park’s playgrounds and baseball fields.
“I had a resident told me to open the playground for kids, since they’re doing that in the city,” Koblenz said. “I passed a playground in Forest Hills. Nobody was wearing a mask, nobody was wiping down equipment. I won’t have people get sick. I don’t want an outbreak. I don’t care what the city does, I see the numbers going up for every place that’s lax.”
He added that the village is taking things “in steps.”
“There’s so many questions that we don’t know, and the professionals don’t know, that it’s mind boggling,” Koblenz said. “My biggest fear is that it doesn’t end, that it gets worse. We’re doing the most we can to protect the residents and our families. That’s all we can do.”
East Hills residents can sign up for pool sessions at https://villageofeasthills.funfangle.club.
