Mayor Shawn Sastri (Photo by Tyler Murphy)

Over the past month our Director of Youth Bureau, Director of City Emergency Management and myself have explored various options in regard to opening Kurt Buyer Pool this summer.

Based on a lack of guidance from New York State, it’s unclear if public pools will be able to open. The indication is, if it becomes permissible at some point, significant additional resources would be needed in order to screen those wishing to swim and also potentially limit occupancy.

As the uncertainty continues, the number of potential summer employees we can hire continues to dwindle as they find other opportunities. Based on all of this, we have made the difficult decision to not open Kurt Beyer Pool this summer.

We are also not going to be doing our traditional youth sports activities this year. Youth Bureau Director Bob Mason, Emergency Management Director A. Jones, and I have talked. We feel it’s a safety precaution at this time to not put the youth bureau staff and kids at unnecessary risk. Bob Mason is still planning on doing something for the summer, but details are still in the works.

— City of Norwich Mayor Shawn Sastri