FAIRHOPE – City parks and facilities began opening Saturday following action by Fairhope officials to resume some operations within social distancing guidelines.
The Municipal Pier, North Beach Park. Quail Creek Golf Course and Fairhope Dog Park opened after being closed in March in efforts to slow the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Public Works Department, city recycling center and Mike Ford Tennis Center reopened Monday. The City Hall drive up window also opened Monday for cash payments only.
Other offices, including City Hall, the Fairhope Recreation Center, Nix Center and Fairhope Museum of History will be closed until May 18 unless state guidelines change.
The Fairhope City Council voted Thursday, April 30, to follow the recommendation of Mayor Karin Wilson to reopen facilities.
The council changed one recommendation. Council members voted to open North Beach Park to the general public instead of only allowing Fairhope residents to use the facility.
Council President Jack Burrell said Fairhope should encourage visitors to come back to the city.
“I think that there’s several issues with not allowing others to enter,” Burrell said. “First of all, we want to be friendly to visitors as our businesses, our retail stores, are opening back up, so I think we need to be inviting. Secondly, we probably have a lot of people who have moved into the city who don’t have an ID that shows that they live in Fairhope, they don’t have a driver’s license.”
Burrell said that if too many outside visitors come to the park, the city can restrict access.
“If it becomes a problem, we can always come back and say we’re going to block it off to only Fairhope residents, but in the meantime I think we should open it up for everybody and give the message that Fairhope, our retail outlets are open with the exception of restaurants who only can curbside pickup and takeout, but our downtown retailers who wish to open are open,” Burrell said.
Councilman Jay Robinson said the city should not encourage large numbers of visitors as soon as restrictions are relaxed, but should welcome anyone who wants to come to Fairhope.
“If we’re opening for business, we maybe don’t want to encourage people to come, but should definitely be open and have everything available for them to come,” Robinson said. “If they can come to the pier, then we want to encourage them to come to our shops and support our local businesses in whatever way we can.”
Councilman Kevin Boone also said the city should do all it can to get people to support local businesses.
“We need to get this town back open and this, to me, is a fine way to do it with everybody coming in and I feel it should be open to the public and to the tourists that come here,” Boone said.
Councilman Robert Brown said the council should do more to support local businesses. He said he was disappointed that the state “Safer at Home” order did not allow restaurants to have dine-in service even with social distancing restrictions.
“I’m a little disappointed in the governor’s latest safer at home action and how it didn’t loosen the restrictions on local restaurants,” Brown said. “I was hoping that she would have followed her task force that she formed, their recommendation for opening those restaurants immediately and follow the safe distancing at half capacity just like the retail did, but however, she didn’t take that.”
Brown asked that the council send a letter to Gov. Kay Ivey asking that the state follow the task force recommendations. Robinson voted against the proposal saying that he had not had a chance to go over all the proposals.
