WESTLOCK - Westlock’s Rotary Spirit Centre and Aquatic Centre remain closed to swimmers, weight room and fieldhouse users at least until the end of the month as municipal officials await further relaxation of the current provincial COVID-19 restrictions.
Town of Westlock CAO Simone Wiley said Feb. 11 that at an emergency task force meeting the previous day they determined that although they could technically open the community’s rec facilities under the province’s Step 1 guidelines which came into force Feb 8, they won’t.
The ice at the RSC has been out since mid-December, while two weeks ago the town announced it won’t be going back in until the fall. Last week both ringette and minor hockey confirmed that their seasons were done.
“Even though both facilities are technically allowed to be open, the opportunities for use of them are so severely limited that it makes no sense to open today when we can wait for three weeks and see what the changes to usage will look like,” said Wiley.
“We took our ice out right away when the closure was announced so as not to incur that cost. We weren’t sure how long that was going to go and that has paid off for us because many other municipalities left their ice in hoping they would be able to open up and that hasn’t happened.”
Wiley said when Step 2 gets closer to implementation in three weeks they’ll reassess the situation. To get to Step 2, which could lead to potential easing of restrictions for retail, banquet halls, community halls, conference centres, hotels as well as further easing of indoor fitness and children's sport measures, hospitalizations need to drop below 450 provincewide.
“The motion that came out of the meeting yesterday was that as more details come out about Step 2 closer to that potential date, we’ll have another meeting, bring that information forward and discuss it and see if it makes sense to open,” she continued.
“My understanding is that by the end of this month the province will give some indication if we’re moving into Step 2 and maybe some more details as to what’s included in that step.”
