In Eugene, playgrounds in city parks feature something new — yellow caution tape.
The city’s Parks and Open Space District placed the tape not long after Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s new social distancing guidelines. It’s one way Eugene’s Parks and Open Space and Eugene Recreation department works to ensure safety within the community during the COVID-19 pandemic, in light of the stay-at-home order’s ban on many recreation areas and activities.
In Eugene, Parks and Open Space is a separate department from Recreation, with different staffing and responsibilities. Parks and Open Spaces oversees some 4,000 acres of land, including parks and natural areas, while Recreation is responsible for facilities like swimming pools and community centers.
Kelly Shadwick, Parks and Open Space’s community engagement manager, was working from home when she first heard about the governor’s new social distancing guidelines. While natural spaces could stay open, the governor’s order prohibited the use of play areas, Shadwick said. Basketball courts, tennis courts, playgrounds and skate parks all had to close.
“My initial reaction was, how could we close things down like that, that are so accessible?” Shadwick said. “How do we close down a playground?”
It would be too cost-prohibitive to put up fencing, she said, so Parks and Open Space created signs to explain the new situation. Parks employees used yellow tape to close off play areas.
That didn’t stop everyone, though, she said. A lot of the time, Shadwick said, “people would tear it down and play on it anyway.” Shadwick said that Parks and Open Space had to rely on people taking the new order seriously.
“Most people did,” she said. “And then some people didn’t.”
Some park staff members focus on maintenance and upkeep, Shadwick said — emptying out garbage cans, keeping portable restrooms clean and mowing grass. Others work in the rose and rhododendron gardens, she said. Community gardens are allowed to continue operating, Shadwick said, since they’re considered essential services.
Parks quickly became a refuge for people during the COVID-19 pandemic, she said. She said increased traffic was both wonderful and a little worrisome, due to concerns about social distancing.
One significant change for Parks and Open Space related to camping in parks, Shadwick said. Shadwick said that Parks and Open Space has seen the number of people camping in parks almost double. “Typically, we’d maybe have 150 people camping in a park over a given month,” Shadwick said. “It went up to about 300.”
Recreation manager Craig Smith said that though their facilities are closed to the public, they are still being utilized. Amazon Park, Hilliard Park and Petersen Barn Community Center act as temporary sites for vulnerable or unhoused individuals, Shadwick said. The temporary shelters are situated in the community center parking lots, according to a designated temporary shelter fact sheet. Smith said the three sites are at full capacity for both tent and car camping, quickly filling up after opening.
Smith said that Recreation instituted emergency childcare for city staff, who were deemed essential workers. The 4J school district has a directive from the state government to open childcare services during emergency situations, he said. The directive led 4J to engage with both Recreation and the YMCA.
Some of the facilities Recreation oversees will be opened more quickly than others, Smith said. The aquatics area doesn’t have many safety guidelines, he said, something that Recreation will wait to hear about before reopening. “And then we have a senior center in Campbell that we’re not sure when we might open up because they’re a vulnerable population and that may be the last open,” Smith said.
For Jase Newton, superintendent of River Road Park and Recreation District, the most difficult thing is the impact the governor’s order has on staff. The district had to let 120 part-time staff go on March 13.
“Because if you’re not running a yoga class, then, you know, you don’t have the money to pay the yoga teacher,” he said. Some teachers have been able to provide instruction from a distance, Newton said. Its YouTube channel features Zumba, meditation and pre-school classes, he said.
The district’s website stated that its facilities are closed to the end of April, but Newton said that the date may change in accordance with state projections. The COVID-19 pandemic and the stay-at-home order will continue to impact the district for the next five to six weeks, he said.
On April 7, Newton announced on the River Road district’s website that its spring and summer programs were on hold. The district’s summer programs are a large source of revenue, Newton said. Combined with no revenue coming in from classes, Newton said that the River Road district is in a “difficult holding pattern.”
Smith said that Recreation had yet to make a decision on whether to cancel its summer plans. “We have not yet made that determination,” he said, although summer registration has not been opened. Smith said Recreation is evaluating what can and can’t be done based on Brown’s criteria.
“But we want to have as much of a summer as we can, and offer that to our patrons,” Smith said. “But it has to be safe, and it has to be within what our governor wants us to do.”
