Town council has given staff the green light to reopen Morinville’s public buildings – but when that will happen is anyone’s guess.
Morinville council voted June 9 to have administration reopen the town office, leisure centre, community cultural centre and the town’s outdoor sports fields when operationally feasible to do so and in accordance with orders issued by Alberta chief medical officer Deena Hinshaw, and to adjust staffing levels as needed.
These facilities have been closed since April 3 and were scheduled to stay shut until June 30. Council reopened the town’s skate park on May 26.
Council also voted 4-3 to cancel this year’s child and youth summer camps (councillors Rebecca Balanko, Stephen Dafoe and Scott Richardson opposed).
The decisions came within hours of the province announcing it would enter stage two of its pandemic relaunch plan on June 12, allowing community halls, gyms, arenas, and other facilities to resume operations.
While he appreciated the province’s decision, Morinville chief administrative officer Stephane Labonne said the town still has a lot of work to do before it could reopen its public buildings.
“We don’t have any lines down on any of our soccer fields,” he said as an example, and they haven’t hired the seasonal staff needed to replace the leisure centre operatives that had been reassigned to public works. The town also has to review the province’s new sanitization requirements and check with sports groups to see what they need to resume play.
Labonne said administration was somewhat caught off-guard by the province’s announcement, as they had expected stage two to launch on June 16 at the earliest. Rec-centres were not supposed to reopen until stage three.
A report to council said the town should cancel its summer camps, as it would be tough to maintain physical distancing requirements at the camps. (Camp organizers weren’t back at work yet either.) Labonne said about 60 youths would be affected by the cancellation.
Labonne said he would have more details on when the town’s buildings could reopen at the June 16 committee of the whole meeting.
