On Wednesday, Governor Tim Walz announced new COVID-19 restrictions that will close the doors on fitness centers, movie theaters, and public pools. Those closures go into effect Friday, November 20.
CROOKSTON POOL
The Crookston Pool will freeze its programs after Friday and plans to honor those once they are allowed to reopen, said manager Cody Brekken. “After Friday, the pool will be closed until Friday, December 18, per Governor Walz’s orders,” said Brekken. “Anybody in the lap swimming in the morning, aqua aerobics and exercise, or the youth wellness swim group, we’ll freeze those programs. Anyone that has paid for that we’ll be honored, and we’ll freeze that until a month from now when we see if we open back up.”
Brekken said they hadn’t had any issues at the pool but will do their part to keep cases down. “We haven’t really had any issues at the pool here, and the volume we see at the pool this time of year usually wouldn’t be a problem,” said Brekken. “But, as a state, they’re deciding to hit the reset button and see if we can get some of these cases down. We’ll do our part to try to make that work and see where it goes from there.”
The Crookston Sports Center will also be closed through Friday, December 18, with all programming and activities paused.
GRAND THEATRE
The Grand Theatre will have to shut down completely, including private rentals, but manager Bo Brorby said they’ll probably offer movie snacks on the weekends. “We haven’t decided if we’re going to sell movie snacks here on the weekends yet,” said Brorby. “I’m sure we’ll probably decide to do that if it seems like people would be interested in coming out for that.”
Brorby said spread in theatres has been low, so the hope is they’ll be able to reopen in time for the release of Wonder Woman in December. “There is a lot of articles and stuff out there with data showing there has basically been no spread of COVID from theatres anywhere,” said Brorby. “That’s mainly because attendance has been so low, but it also seems like theatres, in general, have been doing everything they can to stay open and follow guidelines. So, we’re hoping these four weeks will help do a reset. We did get good news that Warner Brothers announced they are going to put Wonder Woman in theatres the week after we can reopen.”
SNAP FITNESS
Brandon Kresl at Snap Fitness said they’ll stop billing on memberships during the shutdown and are working on preparing some virtual programs for members and the community. “We’re stopping all of our billing like we did the last shutdown,” said Kresl. “We plan on offering some online virtual stuff giving our members and everyone else different ways they can work out from home and different ideas along with that. Exactly what and how we’re still in the process of working on, but there will be some different videos and at-home workouts we’ll be sending out through emails to our members and our Facebook for members of the community to access too.”
