The City of Yellville’s Parks Department has announced it will not open the splash pad at the park for at least two weeks, according to a statement on its Facebook page.After a conference, the Parks Board agreed to reassess the situation on July 1.
Restrictions set forth by the Arkansas Department of Health require the city to limit the number of visitors, insure social distancing and document all visitors with date, time and contact information. The statement says the city would be required to hire people to perform these tasks, which is not a budgeted expense.
The Parks Board considered setting up a reservation system for using the splash pad, eliminating the need to hire monitors to meet the requirements. A similar system had been devised to open a ragball season at the city park. But due to the amount of people who refused to follow the rules, the board determined that option was unfeasible. The statement says the only way to enforce the guidelines is to have an authority figure present.
Another factor considered was outside visitors. Even though Marion County has just two confirmed cases of COVID-19, the county has seen mass crowds in the Buffalo River National Park over the past few weekends, and there would be no way to control visits to the splash pad by out-of-towners.
The Parks Board members say they are working on a “Plan C” and hope to announce a way to open the splash pad in July.
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