Town officials awaiting state orders before deciding on town recreational options

by Dan McClelland

Town officials are awaiting the Governor’s order to begin re-opening the state before deciding what town-sponsored activities will be held this summer.

At the April meeting on the last day of the month- a postponement of the regularly scheduled meeting earlier last month, Supervisor Patti Littlefield left room at the close of that night’s agenda for the board to ponder its options for the summer.

“Our last thing to talk about tonight is all that is going on in Tupper Lake, all the things that we must address,” she began.

“We can carry this discussion on at the next meeting (second Thursday in May) but I can tell you that the town day camp program has in the past had between 50 and 90 kids sign up. The school’s not open today and we don’t know if they will be this summer.” She said if the school doesn’t run summer school this summer the L.P. Quinn building probably won’t be available to the town.

The school in recent years has been the headquarters for the town’s day camp program and it’s there that participants catch buses for their trips around the community and the area.

She told her board members district officials have not yet decided if summer school will be offered to students who need the remediation. “If there is summer school we could probably have day camp” and base it there.

Mrs. Littlefield speculated, however, that even if the elementary school was available to the town, “I don’t know whether we want to take the risk of having a day camp?”

“These are all the things that are spinning in my head in the middle of the night!”

“If there is no summer school there will be no day camp, as we won’t have access to the school!”

She said she mulled the issue with Youth Activities Director Angie Snye “and our opinion is that our day camp works best out of L.P. Quinn.

She said a few years ago when the district was in the throes of construction the town used space in the basement community room of the Goff Nelson Library “and it was not as efficient” to run it there.

“We might be able to do it at the Maddox building, but again it is not the most efficient place for it with that number of kids.”

The supervisor said the L.P. Quinn school is perfect as it has the large gym and many bathrooms near it.

Another issue before the board is what to do with the town’s summer sports program which offers baseball and soccer leagues for numerous age groups, she said.

“The Tinman has been cancelled.” Chamber organizers are going to stage a “virtual one” where triathletes run their own events at home over the course of a month, she told her board.

“As far as Little Wolf goes, I can tell you that for the three weeks John (Sparks II) was in Tupper Lake, our conversations on its operation this summer were on a daily basis, if not three times a day. We talked about what are we going to do there if this goes on. How do we keep the bathrooms clean between the 40 kids who go potty every five minutes down there. -And the campers and the visitors” which also used the restrooms there. “That's a big worry.”

“Also I talked with Senator Betty Little a while ago about this and her indication was that some of the campsites would be allowed to open if they had hook-ups for all of their campers and that they didn't need public bathroom facilities.

She said she also talked with state Department of Health officials in recent days who told her if Little Wolf didn't offer public restrooms then tenting and the use of pop-up trailers would be prohibited. “We probably wouldn't be able to operate the beach, I assume, as far as swimming goes!”

“We do have separate hook-ups (sewer, water and electricity) for all the campers and then it would be a matter of do we want 41 campers in there and do we want to make it exclusive” for seasonal campers? “-And these are all big if's!”

One option, she said, would be to only allow the local campers who stay for the season and not open it to campers from out of the area.

Mrs. Littlefield said the campers, if they were permitted, would have to be separated and maybe the plan could operate at only 50% capacity. “These are all the things we don't know at this point.

“I'm doing a lot of worrying about this” these days, she confessed to her colleagues.

She speculated too that anyone hired to replace her brother as caretaker would have to make sure campers don't have a lot of guests at their site at anyone time.

The supervisor said Franklin County Public Health has prepared a notice for campers this summer. Private campgrounds where people leave their units there all year round may have less restrictions this summer as those units are those people's summer homes. At Little Wolf, all of the campers, even the seasonal ones, are transient, she noted.

She said too the public health restrictions now in place “will be very difficult to adhere to in a public campsite” like Little Wolf.

“I feel if we unlock the gate (to some campers) we're also unlocking the beach (to the public) and we don't know where we are with that right now!”

“We can't answer all these questions tonight because I know on May 15 the Governor is going to make some recommendations” via extending the stay at home order or opening up the state.

“And if we do open up, I would feel really bad if we had a contamination issue down at Little Wolf because we have people not complying. -And it's a struggle to get people to comply, as we all know!”

Mike Dechene said because the town officials don't have enough information about plans to open this state this month and “all these if's remain, I think we should just table it for now.”

“To try to make a plan and not knowing what we're planning for” is not possible, he told her.

Mrs. Littlefield said the first decision to be made by the board is what to do with the seasonal campers who arrive there for the summer on Memorial Day Weekend this month. “They are going to want an answer soon!”

“I think the best thing for us to do is to wait until May 15 and see what happens,” she told her board members.

“Exactly,” said Mr. Dechene.

The supervisor called this summer's potential operation of Little Wolf “a non-stop worry for us at the town.”

Councilwoman Tracy Luton said it is going to be very difficult to prevent people from congregating at the beach and campgrounds if social distancing orders stay in place.

“I love that everyone goes to the beach and get together and eat dinners together, but I don't think we're there yet for this summer,” added the supervisor.

She said if the Governor on May 15 says that campgrounds can open the town could adopt its own set of safety rules.

Ms. Luton said that without a caretaker right now it will be difficult for the town to maintain all the rules and regulations that may still be in place this summer.

Councilman John Quinn also felt the town should hold off making any decisions until “we hear what the state has to say. Everything is up in the air right now!”

He said if the town gets permission to run its facilities and recreational operations this summer he was sure it would be on a very limited basis.

The measure to table decisions on town operations this summer passed unanimously.