Play Frisco, the city’s parks and recreation department, said it is difficult to disinfect park equipment and furnishings to help prevent the potential spread of coronavirus. So the department is asking visitors instead to maintain social distancing of at least six feet and to avoid groups of more than 10. The city is also suggesting visitors regularly wash their hands and use hand sanitizer.
The spray parks are located at Frisco Commons, 8000 McKinney Road; J.R. Newman Park, 8211 Twin Falls Drive; and Shepherd’s Glen Park, 12012 Shepherds Hill Drive. The daily hours of operation will be 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for each spray park.
“We can't stop summer, [and] we don't want to stop summer,” Director of Parks & Recreation Shannon Coates said during the June 2 City Council meeting. “As we look at reopening and offering more and more things as we move forward, one of our most popular camps, Kidventure, actually launched on [June 1].”
In addition to holding Kidventure’s full-day weekly camps for children entering first through fifth grades, the city has opened registration for tennis, college prep and art camps.
“We have camp providers who are working very hard to make sure that they're providing a safe environment,” Coates said. “We invite people to continue to watch us, especially on social media and through our website, because as providers are able to add [camps], we will add them there and open up registrations.”
To allow social distancing with a “functional number” of children, Coates said Kidventure is using space at the Frisco Athletic Center that is not open to the public.
“We're letting them use the gym at this time, but we're working to reallocate space as we start to open up different pieces,” Coates said.
The Frisco Athletic Center reopened its free weights area June 1. It also allows limited, group exercise. Its pools remain closed.
“We still are on limited hours [at the FAC],” Coates said, “although we've brought back 20 of our part-time employees that had been home.”
The facility is also still operating at 25% capacity, according to the city’s website. To use the center, active members are required to pre-register for 90-minute time blocks through Waitwhile or the city website.
Coates said her department is working to resume its Second Saturday Service Days and Third Saturday Trail Walks in small groups with social distancing. The department will also host a drive-in movie event of the Disney film “Onward” at the FAC on June 19.
“That's pretty exciting,” Coates said. “We hope people will come out and join us for that.”
