The Peoria Park District is saying "no" to many summer mainstays this year amid continuing uncertainty from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Peoria Park District Executive Director Emily Cahill announced Wednesday the park district will not open public pools this summer.
"If you think about the safety concerns that come with swimming pools, large groups of people, right? All splashing around, really close together, shoulder to shoulder. There's a huge lack of social distancing that it would be really, really impossible for us to monitor and to keep that safe distancing all the time," Cahill said.
The 3rd of July Fireworks Spectacular at Glen Oak Park are canceled. Other special summer events hosted by the park district on the riverfront are also canceled.
Summer sports programs, fitness programs, yoga classes, and line dancing courses are also canceled due to social distancing concerns. The Peoria PlayHouse Children's Museum will remain closed throughout the summer.
Cahill said summer camp is a maybe at this point. The park district is reviewing information and set to make a final decision in the next week.
"We know that kids have not been in school since March, and those group activites are probably something that they're craving," Cahill said. "But we have to make sure first of all that it's allowed, that it's safe with the number of kids that we're talking about."
If summer camps are allowed, the park district's rec centers would likely also come back online to host them. But those facilities would have limited hours so staff could spend extra time cleaning each day.
The reopening of rec centers, the Peoria Zoo, the RiverPlex, Luthy Botanical Gardens, rentals, splash pads, rentals, and retail spaces are also maybes depending on the developing reopening timeline.
The park district laid off 345 part-time employees as the layoff began. All 131 full-timers are still on the roster, though some are reassigned to new jobs like park or golf course maintenance as their normal duties dried up due to facility closures. Twenty-seven employees were furloughed for two to three weeks.
Park District Deputy Director Brett Wheeler said there is a possibility some decisions could be walked back as new information comes out, but noted people who would coordinate those comebacks are currently assigned to other jobs. That would require hiring back part-time employees to perform the work those full-timers are currently doing.
Superintendent of Finances Karrie Ross said the park district has plenty of cash currently on hand, but is projected to sustain a $5.5 million, or 40 percent, decline in the annual fees and charges used to help fund recreational activities, the riverfront, golf courses, and the RiverPlex.
"Given their very nature, and the programs that come out of them, the fees and charges revenue hit that we're going to take - that is the economic crisis we're in, unfortunately. Those are the funds that are going to be most stressed during this economic period," Ross said.
Parks and trails remain open at this time with social distancing guidelines, though basketball and tennis courts are currently closed. Golf courses are slated to open May 1 with social distancing measures in place per the governor's modified stay-at-home order.
Capital projects are also still planned for this year.
Cahill said the park district board will plot a course for the remainer of the year in May or June. By summer, the park district will begin longer-term planning.
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