Concerns about overcrowding at the waterfront — paired with Gov. Brown’s new statewide mandate requiring face-masks outdoors whenever 6-feet of social distancing isn’t possible — were the Port of Hood River’s reasons for implementing crowding restrictions at the Event Site and Nichols Basin this past weekend.
Beginning Friday, July 17, port staff are monitoring crowding and total number of people at the Event Site and will close the Event Site parking lot when they determine the area’s “COVID capacity” has been reached.
“We need to be able to make a judgment when the park itself is just too crowded,” said Genevieve Scholl, the port’s communications and special projects manager, at a July 14 Port Commission meeting. Staff will review Event Site capacity hourly and when park is closed, it will remain closed until port staff determines there is available capacity.
Additionally, Lot 1 is closed to all vehicle parking and parking spots along the south curb of the Event Site parking lot are coned off and not available for parking at any time
These crowding procedures were initially planned to begin Saturday, July 18, but port staff decided to implement them a day ahead of schedule due to “excessive crowding and non-compliance with social distancing and masking rules” at the Nichols Basin dock area on Friday.
All measures will remain in place until further notice.
“We will see how this weekend goes and then see if we need to take it to the next level or reevaluate a bit,” said Waterfront and Marina Manager Daryl Stafford at the July 14 meeting.
Looking back at the weekend crowds on Monday morning, Stafford said that the parking restrictions did help spread out the Event Site crowds. “People did spread out to the other areas, which is what our goal was,” she said; but that did lead to some crowds of beachgoers gathering at Marina Beach, The Hook, Frog Beach and other sites. “We still have a lot of people coming into town and it was really, really busy.”
Windsurfers, paddlers and other recreationalists were generally willing to work within the port’s restrictions. “I feel like the waterfront stakeholders have done the best they can,” said Stafford. “I feel like they have been very supportive of the decisions that we made.”
The waterfront crowds are primarily beachgoers from out of town, Stafford said, “and I don’t think there’s any way to manage that.”
The port will continue keeping an eye on crowding, and may make changes to restrictions in the future.
For more information, visit portofhoodriver.com or email Stafford at waterfront@portofhoodriver.com.
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July 22, 2020 at 02:00PM
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Port of HR implements restrictions on waterfront:Reducing crowding goal of new rules - Hood River News
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