BONNYVILLE – Soccer fields, baseball diamonds, and the rodeo grounds are closed to the public in the Town of Bonnyville.
Council voted in favour of temporarily closing the municipality’s outdoor recreation areas during their April 14 meeting.
According to Bonnyville Regional Fire Authority (BRFA) fire chief Jay Melvin, administration made the suggestion to council to ensure they're following the provincial health orders by restricting activities that don’t allow people to maintain the physical distancing requirements.
“It's based on the provincial chief medical officer’s order with temporarily closing ball diamonds, soccer fields, and rodeo grounds until at least the end of May 2020, or if something changes with the chief medical officer of health,” he said.
Since the town’s dog park is almost ready to be opened, CAO Mark Power suggested including it in the list of closures.
The motion was meant to ensure there aren’t any grey areas when it comes what outdoor recreation facilities are closed in town. Council previously agreed to close the parks during an April 2 meeting.
“If we close them, then there’s no chance that there’s a group gathering of more than 15 people to play ball or soccer,” Power detailed. “The recommendation isn’t all participation in recreation services, only those that we have control of, which is the ball diamonds, soccer fields, and rodeo grounds, which are listed in the medical officer of health’s restrictions, and our dog park.”
All of the councillors were in favour of the suggestion, except for Mayor Gene Sobolewski.
“The health order says the (sporting) events can’t occur, and we can concur with the events. But, we don’t need to close the facilities,” he exclaimed.
Why the the walking trail along Jessie Lake wasn't included was a question raised by council.
“If we’re going to have a walking trail, but we’re not going to allow people to go out and throw a Frisbee or walk around the soccer field,” noted Coun. Chad Colbourne. “I’m a little perplexed on why the walking trail would be allowed but we’re going to close all the fields.”
Melvin explained, “We didn’t include the walking trail in this because… people can maintain that two-metre distance. It would be very similar for people walking around grocery stores, and we didn’t want to put a full restriction on absolutely everybody not walking everywhere. So we allowed this unless something changes in the health order.”
