COVID guidelines said too daunting for city's summer camp

LACONIA — The city’s Parks and Recreation Department has reaffirmed its decision not to run its summer day camp, despite Gov. Chris Sununu’s giving the go-ahead that such programs could take place.

The governor announced last Friday that day camps could open starting June 22, provided they followed certain state and federal guidelines.

But city Recreation and Facilities Director Amy Lovisek said Monday it would have not been feasible for the day camp program to have adhered to all the special restrictions laid out by the state and the federal Centers for Disease Control due to the coronavirus pandemic.

City Manager Scott Myers announced the cancellation of the day camp two weeks ago, but said at that time if the federal or state guidelines should change, then local officials would re-evaluate whether the program could be held.

The guidelines for summer camps urge frequent hand washing, social distancing and screening of staff and campers for symptoms of COVID-19. Children need to be screened during drop-off, and adults dropping off should not enter the camp, the guidelines say. In addition, camps need to adopt drop-off procedures so there are no lines and that social distancing can be maintained at that time.

Also, campers need to be divided into small groups, which are maintained through the camp session in order to minimize exposure.

Lovisek said activities for campers would have been limited since facilities like playgrounds, basketball courts and ballfields are closed.

“We couldn’t very well allow the campers to use those facilities when none of the other kids could,” she said.

Another obstacle was the requirement that there be place to quarantine a camper or staff member who began to exhibit symptoms away from everyone else until they could leave the premises.

“Our clubhouses are just not set up with a separate room that we could have used for that purpose,” Lovisek said. “There are aspects to the guidelines we could do,” she continued. “But we can’t do them all to make this a safe camp.”