Playgrounds in the Wausau area were closed starting Thursday after an order to do so was included in Governor’s Tuesday order in an effort to slow the spread of the Coronavirus.
B.C. Kowalski
Playground Coronavirus
A sign at Alexander Airport Park informs residents that the playground is closed to stop the spread of the Coronavirus
Parks workers put up signs closing the playgrounds on Thursday, says Assistant Director of Operations Greg Friex. Workers in the Marathon County/Wausau Parks Department put up signs on all the tennis and pickleball courts Friday and planned to sign the disc golf courses on Saturday.
Though the playgrounds will close, Friex says, city and county parks remain open. And plenty have been using them. “I’ve never seen so many people out and about,” Friex says. “They want to be out.”
The parks department has been fielding a lot of phone calls, but most have been about the tennis courts or the boat launches. No one has yet called about the playground.
Riverlife Park’s playground has been one of the biggest challenges, Friex says, with so many entrances to it – they recently put up signs everywhere they could think of. At other playgrounds, such as at Alexander Airport Park, only one sign could be found and a person could easily miss it.
“It’s our job to inform people [about the closures],” Friex says. “As far as enforcement, that’s up to someone higher up.”
Correction: Greg Friex’s name was spelled wrong in an earlier version of this story.
