Okotoks facilities are preparing to open up for some team sports training after a surprise announcement from the Province.
When the Province announced it is moving into Step 1 of its The Path Forward plan to begin easing restrictions on Feb. 8, that first stage included one-on-one and one-on-one-household training.
The Town of Okotoks began working with Natural High Fitness, which runs the fitness facility at Okotoks Recreation Centre, to permit the gym to open. In addition, it arranged for people with certified professional trainers to be able to book half a gymnasium, section of the pool, or half sheet of ice for training, and brought back some aquatic staff to retrain swimming instructors who could offer private lessons.
“We were in the process of opening it up,” said Susan Laurin, community services director for the Town of Okotoks, adding the rec centre was open as of Feb. 8 to Global Sports Academy, figure skating, and some other organizations prepared for one-on-one training.
But on Feb. 6, the Province’s website unexpectedly indicated youth sports for children under 18 could begin team-based training, with certain restrictions in place.
Laurin said the sudden change in plans caught the municipality and sport organizations off-guard.
“The Town of Okotoks is working with all of our sport organizations this week because when we started contacting them this morning (Feb. 8) they said they all needed a couple of days to understand what that would mean for them,” she said.
For the first week of re-opening, the Town will keep its facilities limited to one-on-one training as planned, she said. From there, as sports organizations filter through the restrictions and determine whether they can practise, facility space will be booked accordingly.
She said there are a number of restrictions on team-based training, including a maximum of 10 people including coaches, trainers and participants; maintaining physical distance of three metres for indoor activity and two metres outdoors except for brief interactions from coaches or trainers to guide form or technique; and all participants must be masked except during training, with the exception of coaches and trainers who must wear a mask at all times.
Games are prohibited at this time, and access to dressing rooms must be limited.
Laurin said players are required to come dressed, similar to when recreation facilities opened up in July.
“If you are in hockey you need to come in dressed and ready to go,” she said. “There will be a bench available for you to tie your skates and away you go.”
She said in instances where exemptions are required for special circumstances, the Town will work with sport organizations to make accommodations for dressing rooms.
As for spectators, only one parent or guardian per child will be permitted into facilities to adhere to Alberta Health Services guidelines, she said.
“We do encourage, for those children who don’t need supervision, that we minimize that as much as possible,” said Laurin.
She said the Town will continue to work closely with its sports organizations to adjust to Provincial restrictions and regulations as they change.
Everyone is happy to be opening up recreation opportunities, she said.
“It does not mean we are open to the general public,” said Laurin. “Everything has to be by appointment only, everything has to be pre-registered.”
Mayor Bill Robertson said he is pleased to see youth sports coming back online after a three-month pause. However, he noted the lack of activity at Okotoks rec facilities during what is typically its busiest time of year with hockey, skating and swimming, could take a hard hit on the 2021 budget.
“There were certainly financial implications regarding the closure of the arenas late last year for the 2020 budget,” said Robertson. “January, February, March were our largest months, in particular January and February, and there’s going to be, in my opinion, great reductions.”
Laurin said the Town is currently working out the financial implications from January’s closure and making moves to curb the impact to the budget by carefully managing staff time.
“When the announcements were made for reductions at the end of December, we did do another layoff of all of our non-permanent staff we had brought back,” she said.
In addition, she said some people have retired and not been replaced, and many permanent staff members have been redeployed to help in the parks department.
Moving forward, she said groups are being asked to email their requests for ice, pool or gym time so facility schedules can be managed as efficiently as possible, to work with existing staff rather than bring laid-off employees back.
“For example, we will concentrate activities on one rink so that way we don’t have to have separate things on four rinks,” said Laurin.
One-on-one swimming lessons are also being co-ordinated into back-to-back time slots so staff are not on the clock for hours of downtime between bookings, she said.
There will be facility rental rates charged to individuals or groups booking Okotoks facilities, which will help recoup some costs as well, she said.
“Staff is doing it’s very best to make sure we’re financially prudent in everything we’re doing,” said Laurin.
