Midland's chief administrative officer says the town will keep moving cautiously and carefully in opening up facilities to the public.
"We wanted to make sure we provided all these when it was safe," David Denault told council earlier this week. "We took our instruction from the health services and while taking care of the safety of our staff.
"We're doing a fair bit of planning on how and when we will open the doors to the town hall. We're providing it through appointments now but at some point we will open it to the public."
Recently, the town put out a news release announcing that beaches and public washrooms will be opening up as part of phase two of reopening as instructions come from the province.
Coun. Cody Oschefski asked if town staff had ensured that the Severn Sound Environmental Association (SSEA) had tested water at the beaches and if the town was going to update its signage accordingly.
Denault said that was part of staff's concern around opening the beaches and that they were checking to see if the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit had done its testing.
Coun. Gordon again had questions around the port-a-potty at Midland Bay Landing.
"I'm glad to see beaches and public washrooms opened up with full services," he said. "When can we expect to see that porta potty at Midland Bay Landing re-installed and moved? What's the delay? This is the season it was primarily intended to serve."
Denault said staff wants to ensure they can sanitize the port-a-potty effectively and to the same quality as the public washrooms.
"When are we going to see the return of our seasonal staff to help with parks maintenance and garbage collection and more?" Gordon asked. "I recall we authorized that the town can use seasonal and contract staff. I'm just looking for timing."
Andy Campbell, executive director of environment and infrastructure, said the delays were around making sure the town could acquire cleaning equipment.
"Starting Saturday, the staff from the rec centre are being redeployed to clean all the washrooms in the park, and disinfecting the port-a-potties," he said. "Also starting this Saturday, we have eight staff being redeployed within the organization to cut the grass, clean the washrooms and pick up the garbage. If that complement isn't suffiecient at the end of the week, we will consider bringing in students or contract workers."
Gordon asked if it was true that some parks apparently were not being manicured regularly.
Campbell said that may be because of the town's parks master plan was updated and work with the SSEA started to reintroduce more pollinator species into the parks.
"If people aren't using the manicured areas of the park, why would we continue to manicure them versus letting them go to a naturalized state," he said, adding staff could bring forward a report to council at its next meeting.
Gordon added: "I would like to see a report to see what places we deem pollinator friendly."
