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City Council Minutes Page 7 <br />May 4, 2020 <br />---------------------------- <br />people not to use the playgrounds. <br />Mr. Portner indicated the city's playgrounds are currently signed as closed due to <br />COVID-19 but there is no active enforcement. <br />Councilmember Ovall indicated confusion with enforcement may be the problem as <br />he has also received calls from parents saying an officer asked them to remove their <br />kids from the playground. <br />Chief Nierenhausen questioned if the Council has information on the callers because <br />he would like to look back at police records for details to verify the concerns. <br />Mayor Dietz said he received a call Saturday from someone who said she was politely <br />asked on Friday to remove her kid from the playground. Councilmember Ovall has <br />the person's name and will provide it to Chief Nierenhausen. He believes it is the <br />same person who contacted Mayor Dietz. Chief Nierenhausen indicated that is <br />helpful and he will look in to. He believes the person asking people to remove their <br />children from the playground may be a department volunteer. <br />Mayor Dietz asked Mr. Portner the status of the playground rules and asked the <br />Council what they want to do. Mr. Portner indicated current CDC guidance is for <br />gatherings of fewer than 10 people and to maintain social distancing, so the city took <br />proactive measures and closed the playgrounds. He explained with current guidelines <br />we want people socially distanced and that can be very difficult on a playground. He <br />added information from the CDC on how long the virus lives on different materials <br />was also considered as the city does not have the means to sterilize the playgrounds <br />sufficiently. He noted it is up to the Council if they want to leave the decision on <br />whether to use a playground up the people. <br />Councilmember Wagner believes the signs meet the spirit of the Governor's Orders <br />and she has no desire to fence or tape the playgrounds. She added people need to be <br />responsible and have self -governance and she is not interested in the police taking <br />time to drive by each playground but for enforcement to be only complaint driven. <br />Council consensus was to leave the playgrounds signed as is but not actively enforce <br />and to have Chief Nierenhausen follow-up with his officers and make sure <br />everybody is on the same page with enforcing the guidelines. <br />9. Council Liaison Updates <br />There were no updates. <br />10.2 Multipurpose Facility Rental Fees <br />Mr. Benoit presented the staff report and reviewed a PowerPoint outlining fee <br />information. <br />P 0 V I R I a 0r <br />N' ATURE <br />