Brian Hagberg
WARREN, Pa. – The City of Warren will offer the Summer Playground Program and open the C.A.R. Pool this summer after City Council passed a pair of motions during a special meeting Monday night.
Councilman Doug Hearn made the motion to offer the Summer Playground Program, while Councilman Phil Gilbert made the motion to open the C.A.R. Pool. Both motions were made with the caveat that opening will be done while following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Pennsylvania Department of Health COVID-19 safety guidelines.
Both motions passed, 4-3, with Councilmen Hearn, Gilbert, John Wortman and Christian Zavinski in favor and Councilmen Greg Fraser, Paul Giannini and Mayor Maurice Cashman opposed.
“We all know the youth of our city have lived under the COVID restrictions now for over a year,” Hearn said. “They lost organized Park activities last year. Our youth have learned how to protect themselves and others in a pandemic world. In fact, I do think that maybe our youth have done a better job of it than some of our adults. As a city, we’ve embraced safe protocols, and understand how to help stop the spread of disease.”
The City had announced that the Summer Playground Program had been canceled, and the status of the C.A.R. Pool uncertain, last month. Both announcements were made independent of Council and members called for a special meeting to discuss the programs.
“What I do think the council needs to be careful about is starting to micromanage the job of the city manager and the administration of our state,” Fraser said. “I think it’s a slippery slope that we can start getting into election year postures, overstepping our bounds sometimes, in terms of what we expect city management to do.”
“I don’t disagree that council should not micromanage city staff, however, I feel that this program was budgeted for in the city’s budget,” Wortman responded. “And the decision that was made to close them, I found out about, not from city staff, but from one of my constituents. And I feel that the proper time to discuss not funding, either of these programs is during the budget when our citizens have an opportunity to have a say on these programs.”
The program will be held at Beaty, Lacy and DeFrees playgrounds. Crescent is unavailable this summer due to a construction project.
A number of city residents attended the meeting, the first in-person meeting since the City Municipal Building reopened last week, to voice their support for staffing the playgrounds this year.
“In the last 48 hours I’ve had over 300 residents of the City of Warren sign a digital petition, supporting the staffing of our playgrounds this summer,” Kelly Blasco said. “(The Playground Program) is basically a rite of passage for our youth.”
“As a parent of a child who the past couple of years attended the Parks program. I know the value of the program, and I feel that reinstituting the program this year is extremely important for the physical and mental health of our children,” Jared Villella said. “There’s a level of increased depression in children, and mental insecurities that I think we can avoid by getting the kids out and having them do that social interaction.”
The motion to open the C.A.R. Pool drew some pointed reminders about the difficulty of offering that type of recreation service while still adhering to COVID guidelines.
“We may move to a reservation system where only a certain number of people will be permitted in the facility,” City Manager Nancy Freenock said. “I don’t know how limited, it’s going to be by reservation, there is a limit for the number of individuals that can be in the pool in the facility, and then each of the structures. Also, it’s recommended that food not be served, unless it’s being consumed by individuals in the same household. Again, our guards aren’t going to know who’s from the same house. So there are a number of
additional issues.”
Given the uncertainty of how long those guidelines, or others, might be in place, Wortman offered that the city needs to adapt.
“I feel that we as city governments have an obligation to adapt, and make sure that these services can continue to be offered,” Wortman said. “There are other municipalities that have done this, there are private industries that have pools that are operating under the guidelines. I don’t think it’s acceptable for us to just say ‘no.’ If this disease is going to stay with us, life has to go on in a safe and responsible way. We have to adapt.”
