BROOKLYN, Ohio -- Closed for more than a year, Brooklyn officials are eyeing a residents-only soft reopening beginning June 14 of its senior center.
“While our phase 1 reopening including outdoor activities we started May 19, we’re going into phase 2 including indoor activities with a reduced capacity of 25 percent,” Brooklyn Senior Center Coordinator Karen Fratto said. “The idea is to open a handful of classes.”
Reduced capacity for the Brooklyn Senior Center, which normally holds roughly 300 folks spread out among two halls, is going to be about 70 members.
“The Cuyahoga County Board of Health is still asking us to stay at 25 percent,” Fratto said. “The classes are going to be chair yoga, ceramics and a few other little things. Also, the library will open.
“This is important, people have to call 216-635-4262 to reserve a spot. We’re not just letting people come in droves here.”
While the June 14 reopening is for residents only, Fratto said the date to reopen the center for non-resident visitors is tentatively set for July 5. However, that decision hasn’t been confirmed with safety protocols and guidelines seemingly changing -- and opening up -- daily.
Regarding the latter, that also involves the mask-wearing policy. Fratto said currently she prefers folks to wear masks and social distance, but that could change with new guidelines allowing vaccinated residents not required to wear masks.
As for the reopening, the Brooklyn earlier this week sent out a robocall announcing its plans.
“A lot of people are very excited for both the outdoor and the indoor activities,” Fratto said. “We started off with the outdoor hot dog event on May 19 where we had a very good showing.
“Everybody was happy to see their friends they haven’t seen for the past 15 months. We’re already seeing an uptick in calls. It’s been a long-time coming. Even though we’ll be on a smaller scale, they’re just so excited to be coming back in the building and interacting with their peers.”
Brooklyn Mayor Katie Gallagher said it was a tough decision in March 2020 to close the senior center initially, but ultimately it was the right one.
“I know it was difficult for active seniors who regularly come to our center to be shut down from friends and activities for so long, but we’re so happy to have them back,” Gallagher said.
“Now that we have a clearer understanding of the disease, higher rates of vaccination and a solid procedure on how to manage the building with the disease, we feel confident in this decision.”
Brooklyn's Senior Center bus. (John Benson/cleveland.com)
While the Brooklyn Senior Center has been closed since last spring, Fratto said the city did successfully restart its bus transportation program in April 2020.
“We only accommodate four people at a time on our 15-person bus so we can distance them,” Fratto said. “Masks are required on the bus. We’ve been allowing one grocery shopping trip or medical visit a week. Our bus is only for Brooklyn residents. It’s a suggested donation of $1 each way.”
Read more news from the Parma Sun Post here.
"soft" - Google News
June 02, 2021 at 06:36PM
https://ift.tt/2RfFsIB
Brooklyn Senior Center schedules resident-only soft-reopening for June 14 - cleveland.com
"soft" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2QZtiPM
https://ift.tt/2KTtFc8
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Brooklyn Senior Center schedules resident-only soft-reopening for June 14 - cleveland.com"
Post a Comment