The city's boat launch at Sarnia Bay will remain open for the time being but the mayor warns it will be shut down if the public doesn't follow COVID-19 protocols.
Mike Bradley told Sue Storr on CHOK (103.9 FM, 1070 AM) Wednesday morning that social distancing and restrictions on the size of gatherings must be adhered to.
"They're going to stay open, probably on a day-to-day basis until we see that it's not being treated with respect," said Bradley. "If family members are going out on a boat ride, fine. If people are social mingling at the boat launch, then there's going to be an issue."
The mayor said he was leaning toward closing the facility.
"I struggle with it because I'm sort of on the other side of it, of shutting it down. But the consensus of the staff group and the primary control group was we should leave it open and watch it carefully and if people aren't social isolating, then we will shut it down. We're trying to be fair to people, we're trying to give them an opportunity to cooperate, and if they don't want to cooperate then the majority, unfortunately, will suffer."
The city said the use of the Centennial Park facility will be restricted to inhabitants of one household at a time. The provincial government has not mandated the closure of boat launches.
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 had increased by one to 87 as of Wednesday morning with the number of deaths still at eight. Lambton Public Health reported five of those confirmed to have the virus have recovered.
Mayor Bradley said the inconveniences the city is being asked to endure are not unreasonable given the severity of the outbreak.
"You have hydro, you have power every day, you have clean water, you have Netflix. We do have food and we have a food supply. All of those are basic things that make this as tolerable as it possibly can when you're dealing with a disease that is so hideous, that it can impact on anyone," he said.
-With files from Sue Storr