The Municipality of Grey Highlands will be moving forward with installing ice at its Flesherton arena.
According to Grey Highlands CAO, Karen Govan, the municipality’s emergency control group voted earlier this week to begin the process of installing ice at the Flesherton arena for the winter season, a sign of returning to normalcy, says the municipal leader.
“The control group voted on a phased-in approach for the other arenas,” said Govan. “We're currently reaching out to our user groups to find out what commitment they have for the 2020-2021 ice season.”
The municipality’s outdoor facilities remain under a Phase-Four-A status.
“They're not completely open, but most things are allowed to be utilized as long as user groups and members of the public follow public health protocol,” she said.
According to Govan, hall rentals in Grey Highlands remain on hold for the time being as the province is currently debating the possibility of scaling back on the size of gatherings allowed.
“As you know with COVID we're constantly monitoring the situation. Hopefully, we won't be in that stage too long that we can start to move forward to open some of our halls,” Govan said.
She added that six employees have returned to the municipal office and members of the public can access municipal services in person at a customer service window.
Grey Highlands council will also be looking to shift back to holding in-person council meetings. A staff report is slated to come back to council with detailed plans at the next meeting, which is scheduled for Oct. 7.
Grey Highlands declared a state of emergency on March 27, following the declaration from Grey County. The council has been meeting virtually since that time.
“We are monitoring this as a county,” Govan said. “All of the emergency management groups and the county of Grey are all working together to determine when we actually lift that declaration of emergency, which will be a huge step in the direction of normalcy.”
