City Manager Byron Johnson noted at Tuesday night’s ZOOM meeting that things were changing daily…
“I would just liked to say up front that this is very much a work in progress. The information is changing kind of on a daily basis, so this is not the final plan, this is the plan as we know it at this point.”
To that point, while the report stated that playgrounds were problematic for re-opening, Director of Community Services Jeff Norburn stated later in the meeting that health authorities now felt that they could be re-opened…
“We’re in discussion with the School District here and we want to coordinate the opening of School District playgrounds with the opening of city playgrounds, so we have a consistent message that goes out to the community and we don’t have an issue where city playgrounds are closed but school playgrounds are open, or vise-versa.”
City Hall will re-open on June 1st, although there is no plan at this point to to back to in-person City Council meetings, at least not before the end of June.
As for sports teams wanting to use city/CRD facilities, it won’t be a made-in-Quesnel solution.
Mayor Bob Simpson…
“We won’t deal with our local groups unless the provincial association has signed something off, and then we would engage with them.  So if for example, softball comes and says we’ve got a COVID re-opening plan but we’re aware that Softball BC has not issued their COVID re-opening guidelines, we’re not going to engage in the conversation.”
There also won’t be a general decision because every sport has different levels of contact, and therefore different risk factors when it comes to COVID-19.
The city also noted that any decisions on sub regional recreation facilities would have to be made by the North Cariboo Joint Planning Committee.
The next meeting is on June 9th.
City parks, including the Riverfront Trail, remain open as they never were closed due to COVID.
And some low risk outdoor venues have already been opened, such as the skateboard park, bike parks, dog park, tennis and pickleball courts.