The Municipality of Leamington is slowly opening up the Nature Fresh Farms Recreation Centre to residents.
The centre will be reopened in three phases. As the community entered Stage 3 of reopening the limited access to the ice and pool have been granted to groups and organizations with COVID-19 guidelines in place.
“We continue to carefully assess this well-used facility to determine how we can offer services to our community again using a gradual and phased approach,” said Mayor Hilda MacDonald. “The health and safety of our guests and employees continue to be our top priority, and there has been a significant amount of staff time and planning to ensure a safe reopening for everyone.”
Currently, the facility is being used to host the COVID-19 assessment Centre at the gym and emergency isolation pods have been set up in the Highbury Canco Rink.
In Phase 2, expected in the fall of 2020 the municipality will reopen the use of the gym, weight rooms, courts, pool and fitness studio by advance registration only while adhering to capacity and physical distancing guidelines.
“This centre is a community hub that is accustomed to seeing over 450,000 visitors each year, all of whom use various aspects of the facility,” said Peter Neufeld, chief administrative officer. “We will be taking a very cautious approach and will need to feel confident at each phase of our reopening plan before progressing to the next. We also need to be cognizant of the cost-benefit of reopening to ensure we are using budgeted taxpayer funds wisely."
In Phase 3, regular programming will resume while taking into consideration capacity and physical distancing requirements. This is not expected until 2021.
