Highlands decision was made Monday
The last thing Town of Highlands Recreation Director Aaron Falk wanted to do was to make the announcement he did on Monday morning.
“It is with an extremely heavy heart that we announce that we will not be running our Summer Recreation Program this summer,” he said via the town’s Facebook page. He’d known for weeks, because of the prevalence of Coronavirus in this area, that he and the Town Board might have to make the decision, but he says he just didn’t want to cancel. But, many factors forced his hand.
The first: “As of today, we have no definite date of when Roe Park or the pool will be opening, or whether or not we will be allowed to use Long Pond, “ he said.
The second: “We don’t know how busing for trips would safely work and even if trip destinations such as Splashdown, Destinta Theatres and The Castle will be allowed to open for summer camps.”
The third: “To further complicate things, CPR/First Aid certifications needed by counselors by the Department of Health to grant a permit to operate are not being offered at this time.”
Finally, he said, they wanted to make the decision early enough that families could begin making alternate plans for their children for the summer. The decision stands, regardless of the governor’s announcement Tuesday that day camps can resume on June 29.
“We held out as long as we could on making this decision,” he said. “At this point, there are still too many uncertainties.”
Falk says he is hoping to be able to plan some fun activities for local kids for this summer.
“I do have some good news for you — as the summer goes on and we start to see things improve, we offer some free small group ‘pop-up’ activities like we have in the past,” he said, noting he already has some ideas, including baseball and softball leagues. “As we find out what we are allowed to do from the Health Department we’ll plan accordingly.”
The low-cost Summer Recreation program typically runs for seven weeks in July and August, with several hundred local children enrolled and local high school and college students serving as counselors.
In recent years, the program has also served as a summer nutrition program for local youth; Falk says he is working with the HF-FMSCD to be able to continue to provide that service this summer.
