ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — The splash park inside the Nocatee community officially re-opened Wednesday after shutting down for months.
Only Nocatee residents will be allowed in for the time being.
The capacity will be limited to 25% and you must make a reservation before going.
Families lined up Wednesday enjoy the nice spring weather by the pool.
Soon they stepped up to the gates, they were greeted by a speaker that had CDC guidelines playing on a loop.
The front desk attendant is behind a plexiglass and has disinfectant at the ready.
David Ray, the community manager for Nocatee, showed Action News Jax around the water park.
“We put a reopening plan together submitted to St. Johns County and the Florida Department of Health and received a positive confirmation from both,” Ray said.
Part of the new plan includes separating the day into three parts.
The first group comes from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., the second group from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and the third group from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., in between each group staff sanitizes every surface.
“We already had the equipment on hand even before the virus, but we have the capabilities on a very large scale disinfect furniture surfaces and the decks,” Ray said.
Wednesday served as a soft opening for the splash park. Ray said they could still make changes.
“We’re not even absolutely certain what we’re going to do for Memorial Day weekend. We’re learning or observing and taking advantage of this time to learn better ways to do things, safer ways to do things,” he said.
The operations manager for Nocatee also serves on several national industry committees that are studying water parks and the virus and because of that they’ve been in touch with some of the biggest water parks in the country to get ideas on what works best.