Joliet Park District shutting down

The Joliet Park District will shut down at the end of Tuesday and keep facilities closed through March.

The park district is one more operation suspending services to avoid spreading coronavirus.

The decision means the cancellation of programs as well as closing of facilities.

The public has accepted the news in light of the global crisis caused by coronavirus, park district Executive Director Brad Staab said Monday.

"Everybody's been very understanding," Staab said..

Park facilities were remaining open Tuesday, Staab said, because two locations will be used as polling places during the election that day – the Inwood Athletic Club and Nowell Park Recreation Center.

"We wanted to stay open and give people a chance to vote," he said.

People were using the facilities Monday although attendance was down.

"Obviously, the crowd is significantly lower than on a typical Monday but we still have people working out," Staab said.

The next question facing the park district is what will will happen with staff. Staab said they will work for at least the next two weeks but did not have an answer for beyond that.

"We're going to take the next two weeks and deep clean all of our facilities, and we're going to have staff do that," he said.