CLALLAM COUNTY – With the first sunny weekend since the opening of state and county parks, we checked in with Clallam County Parks Director Joel Winborn to get his take on how it went.
As expected, a lot of people left their homes to visit the parks. How many of those were form out of town is difficult to say. Winborn says, in general, people followed the separation requirements, but added that there were some larger groups of people seen in various locations.
County Health Officer Dr. Unthank addressed the issue at Monday morning’s briefing.
“I have heard quite a few reports of crowding at our parks over the weekend. That is concerning to me. It was a really beautiful weekend. I totally understand why people wanted to go to the park, and it is okay to go outside. But one thing that we’ve been messaging, and I want to continue to message is, if you go to a park and it appears crowded, go to a different park. Because if we do see a lot of crowding continuing at our parks, unfortunately, the only safe option will be to close them again, and we don’t want to do that.”
Winborn says the Parks Department will be stepping up their notification signage to remind people to recreate responsibly. He says if there’s a message to get out to the public it would be to please follow the recommendations from the State, and the posted signage, “so we can all continue to get out and enjoy our incredible County”.
Unthank touched on another issue that came up over the weekend.
“The other thing that’s a little concerning is, I have had reports of folks who were kind of going around reading people’s license plates and confronting them if they think they’re from out of town. I don’t recommend that either. I don’t recommend, you know, trying to police the folks who were visiting. Technically, just so everyone’s aware, it is okay to travel outside of the county for a phase-1 permissible activity. Which means it is okay to travel to a different county to go to a park, as long as you don’t camp. That is currently legal.”