The Athens Parks and Recreation Department has given some answers as to what will be open and available this summer in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, but parks and rec director Bert Bradford said there are still many more questions and some “gray area” that can’t be determined at the moment.

“There’s always some gray area here, but what we’re trying to do is control what we can control,” Bradford said. “Some things we had to eliminate or postpone because we feel there is no way to social distance. If there is no way to promote and somewhat control the social distancing, we are not willing to put that out there yet.”

Beginning Monday, pavilion rental, playground equipment and fitness classes will again be open to the public. Wavaho Field will be open for practice reservations, and the current recreation center will be reopened for public use of restrooms or attending fitness classes.

The fitness classes were originally not supposed to begin until the new recreation center opens, but with teachers needing to teach, the decision was made to allow them to teach their classes at the current rec center next to the Athens High football field.

“We can open up the rec center to fitness classes because we can control social distancing,” Bradford said. “We’ll have tape on the floor and be able to clean up before and clean up after.”

However, the Athens Sportsplex remains closed for team sports for the time being. Travel baseball and softball tournaments are set to resume in late August, with youth sports camps set for reevaluation July 1. Karate classes will resume after the new rec center opens, while adult softball, free play basketball and youth volleyball are canceled for the summer.

Travel ball tournaments typically bring lots of money into a city with thousands of athletes and their families descending on the tournament location. However, Bradford said that is exactly the reason why the city is putting a hold on hosting tournaments for the time being.

“A lot of what is happening in the summer is travel ball,” Bradford said. “We feel potentially that’s the highest risk area because you’re pulling people onto your facility from other geographical areas. We don’t know where they’re coming from. Right now, in the city of Athens, (COVID-19) doesn’t seem to be a huge risk. But that could change.”

The city swimming pool will open only for Athens Swim Team practices and private parties. The swim team will not be allowed to host any meets this summer. Open swim will be reevaluated July 1.

“For the most part, those will be all local, almost family member type events,” Bradford said. “That’s the thought process behind (opening the pool for practices and private parties). After each party we can go in and sanitize. Even if we limited the pool capacity to 50%, we can’t sit there all day long and control social distancing. I think we’ve given all we can give and still feel comfortable.”

Reducing the spread of the novel coronavirus isn’t the only reason the Sportsplex remains closed and summer sports are canceled, Bradford said. There simply isn’t enough staff to handle what would need to be done.

“When the pandemic first started, we pulled back and had to let our temporary employees go,” Bradford said. “What we’re trying to do now is start the process of seeing how many we have available. If we start gathering some of them back, it will allow us to increase what we offer.”

Bradford said the park and rec department typically has about 35 temporary employees. Currently, there are none.

“We rely on our temporary employees so much, so we’re going to have to do a lot of growing to get back to where we were,” he said. “We will need more than ever with the new (rec) facility.”

The spring youth sports season was canceled due to the pandemic, so the parks and rec department is planning to offer an extended fall sports season.

Baseball and softball registrations for the fall season will take place June 15 through July 8, while soccer and flag football registrations will be from June 20 to July 20. Archery registrations will take place Sept. 1–30.

Bradford said the city is constantly monitoring the COVID-19 situation and things could change if the number of infections increases or decreases.

“Like everybody else, we are following where this pandemic is going,” Bradford said. “What are the numbers? Are they increasing, leveling off or dropping? That will have a huge effect of how we go forward. We’re going to keep watching it and see which direction it goes and adjust accordingly.”