Black Diamond Town council has reconsidered its requirement that campers must stay a minimum of one month in its municipal campground following a barrage of phone calls the past couple of weeks.
As bookings came in for the 51-site Bob Lochhead Memorial Park campground before it opened for the season on June 1, hundreds of those calls were potential visitors requesting that the 30-day stay minimum stay be relaxed. The restriction, agreed upon between the Town of Black Diamond and Foothills Lions Club, was decided at a special council meeting in early May in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19 through the community.
“A week prior to the campground opening there had been a number of calls that came into the town office, as well as the office at the campground, requesting a reconsideration of the length of stay for campers,” Sharlene Brown, chief administrative officer, told council at its June 3 meeting. “As of late last week, the number of requests have brought this forward (by the Foothills Lions Club) to say would council be interested in a reconsideration of the operational plan being put forward to have no restrictions on the length of stay.”
After some discussion, council voted to amend the agreement so campers will be allowed to stay a minimum of one week, rather than one month.
Coun. Brian Marconi said he couldn’t support allowing campers to stay just a couple of nights due to the increased potential of spreading COVID-19, but that he was comfortable with reducing it to a week.
“We have a large population here of seniors,” he said. “I won’t agree to less than seven days.”
Coun. Jackie Stickel said the decision should be left up to the Foothills Lions Club.
“I think we should let them run their business,” she said. “We should trust them to do the best job they can do. I don’t think a person coming one or two nights versus a week has any health implications whatsoever to the community.”
Stickel told council the club is doing its due diligence to prevent the risk of spreading the virus on the grounds by closing its playground, washroom and shower facilities to public use.
“The Lions Club is very conscious of the rules that are out there,” she said.
Campground chairman James Lee said the club feels it can safely open the campground to visitors for any length of stay this season.
“We felt we flattened the curve considerably in Alberta and they’re going ahead with Phase 2 so we better be on this and be ready to roll,” he said. “We had over 300 calls to our office looking to camp for a couple of days or a week.”
Lee said he’s not concerned the virus will be brought into Black Diamond through the campground as it has large sites with plenty of spaces for isolation, is allowing only self-contained units with shower and toilet facilities, is supplying the required personal protective equipment, is posting signage with the new health regulations throughout the grounds and is ensuring all visitors are provided with a printed copy of the Alberta Health Services COVID-19 protocols.
“We have done what we can to mitigate opportunities for people to spread anything,” he said.
Lee said about 40 per cent of the campground's visitors are seasonal, which means it had only been at half capacity.
He said council’s agreed-upon one-week minimum stay will continue to limit the number of visitors to the Bob Lochhead Memorial Park campground, which could be a detriment to the entire community as proceeds from the campground typically contribute more than $60,000 to local charities organizations each year.
“This will be a bigger year than ever for various groups asking for financial assistance because of the economic times and the impacts of funding being removed from lots of programs,” he said. “We’re going to be struggling.”
In the end, town council has the final say and the club will abide by its decision, said Lee.
“Unfortunately this hasn’t gone in our favour, but it’s their decision to make,” he said.
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