As the pandemic struck, the city of Laredo, Texas, moved quickly to shutter its public recreation centers, citing health concerns and budget constraints.
As television station KGNS reports, the 12 recreation centers in Laredo have been closed for nearly a year now, but city council members are moving toward reopening.
Council member Vanessa Perez told KGNS that she’d bring up the subject at a city council meeting on Monday.
“I think the question is, ‘when’ can we start using these facilities, and not so much ‘let’s open them tomorrow,’ ” Perez told KGNS. “I don’t want to make an irresponsible decision here if that’s not the best advice, if that’s not the proper thing to do right now.”
Perez isn’t making her suggestion arbitrarily. Laredo reportedly has a relatively low hospitalization rate, and is gaining ground as far as vaccinating the public. Still, she expressed a desire to take a cautious approach — working with health officials on a way to reopen the recreation centers safely. She suggested her approach might be to limit capacity at rec centers to 25 or 50 percent to start.
“I’ve been getting a lot more phone calls for constituents asking for different things,” Perez told KGNS. “Some people want the pool, some people want the equipment. I have seniors that use the Fasken Rec Center that are just dying to get back over there.”
