The Crookston Parks and Recreation Board fully supports the continued planning and development of a city-based Summer Skills Program for area youth in 2020.
Crookston Parks and Rec director Scott Riopelle made a presentation to the board Monday, laying out details and gathering input on a potential Summer Skills Program that would start July 6 and run through August 7. The program would allow area youth of all ages to hone their athletic skills and practice sports throughout the summer, but not play any actual games. The board unanimously voted to allow planning for this program to officially move forward.
There are a number of key ingredients needed to make the program work. Riopelle said checking people’s temperatures, and the continued practice of wearing masks and social distancing are all essential.
“All of that has to take place,” said Riopelle. “We have to check with our attorneys on whether we can legally do screening with temperatures. There’s some alternatives if we can’t, but it is heavily suggested to go that route.”
As for staffing, Riopelle said the city will rely heavily on high school and college-aged youth who have previously been employed by Parks and Rec to help run programs like this. Riopelle said the city is also hoping to find at least a few volunteers.
“It’s not a whole lot of work for them,” Riopelle said. “It’s only a few, 3-4 hours a day, but if we could get 12-15 hours (per week) for them, that would be good.”
Under current state guidance, there can be a maximum of 24 participants on an outdoor playing field. For Crookston, Riopelle said the idea is to have skill-based programs divided by age groups, with instructors leading groups of 10-12 kids at a time. The preferred time to have these programs would be in the morning, but evening times are also being explored. The main sports mentioned Monday were baseball and softball. There was also talk of tennis, golf and soccer programs, but the details on those are unclear.
“Baseball and softball would be the big part,” Riopelle said. “We would also like to have kids learn those motor skills and do some soccer or tennis. As for golf, we’d have to check with Minakwa to see if that’s available. We wouldn’t be able to teach that ourselves. That would be a whole different thing there.”
Crookston Parks and Rec announced the cancellation of all youth and adult summer programs on May 5, but as COVID-19 restrictions began to ease in Minnesota, the desire to have some kind of organized outdoor activity for youth this summer grew stronger. About a half-dozen parents from Crookston and surrounding towns like Fertile spoke in support of starting this program at Monday’s meeting.
“There’s a group of people that want activities for their children and we would like to see it happen,” Riopelle said. “So, now that things have lightened up and changed, we have an alternative and some options we can do to make that work.”
Riopelle also presented the official preparedness plan to get the Central Park campground in Crookston back open. The bathhouse will remain closed for the summer, and there will be a city park ranger on duty starting June 16 to ensure that social distancing is being practiced. Hand wipes will also be available throughout the campground.
As for the Crookston Community Pool, work continues on the new shower installation. Much like the campground, the pool’s preparedness plan will focus on safe sanitation practices.
“It’s all of the high-touch areas,” Riopelle said. “We’ll have to make sure we disinfect all of those. The chemicals in the pool take care of that part. The concern is outside of the pool.”
The city hopes to have the pool open by July 20.
