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STEUBENVILLE -- Parks and Recreation Director Lori Featherolf said Friday she's not sure when they'll be able to restart recreation activities.
Featherolf said the department has to follow state guidelines.
"I've been getting lots of calls and questions on when this or that is going to open back up," she said. "What I can tell you right now is that it won't be until, at the earliest, the end of May or first part of June, and it may even go longer than that."
Featherolf said the Ohio Parks and Recreation Association "is in constant contact with the governor," who will decide how quickly and when recreational facilities and activities can resume. She said social distancing will make it hard for recreation to restart.
She said they've been told the governor will gradually advance social gathering limits, "with large gatherings not happening until the fall." That's going to impact summer baseball and softball leagues.
And once the recreation center reopens, "kids are going to want to come and play basketball, they'll get too close to each other," she said. "We're also in the process of refunding people's money for rentals, since we can't have parties. It's changed a lot of people's plans."
Featherolf said she's not sure if pools will open for the summer.
"At this point, it's not looking too good," she said. "We're being told there's going to be lots of restrictions and guidelines once the governor says pools can open -- we'd still have to maintain a six-foot distance, so we'd only be allowed to let a certain number of people into the pool area, which at this point is about 20 people. It does not make it financially advantageous for us to do that. And the guards would have to wear face masks, there'd be a special cleaning protocol and no pool chairs will be allowed. It's a lot, so at this point it's not looking too (positive)."
And if the pool closes, "There's no swimming lessons, no open swims, no rentals or pool parties," she said. "We were going to have a triathlon for kids ... it would involve the pool, biking and running. We were also going to have a kids' basketball camp at the rec center, but we're not going to be able to do that now. A lot of things we were going to try this year we're not going to be able to do.
"It's hitting our department hard, very hard," she added. "It's hitting all parks and recreation departments across the state of Ohio very hard."
City officials have ordered a hiring freeze, so that put plans to hire two additional workers for the parks department on hold.