Chehaw Park and Zoo brings outdoor relief from shelter-in-place boredom

ALBANY – For the past week, Chehaw Park and Zoo has offered a taste of outdoor relief to those suffering the effects of COVID-19 shelter-in-place boredom.

“This was a new experience,” Chehaw Executive Director Tommy Gregors said. “We know how to respond to floods and hurricanes. Chehaw, Thronateeska and the Flint RiverQuarium have protocols for those kinds of disasters.

“We had actually gone to a meeting in South Carolina where zoos were looking beyond natural disasters and focusing on chemical attacks, terrorism threats and other things these public venues should be prepared for. I don’t think anybody realized one was eminent and would require us to rapidly shut-down.”

In some regards, Chehaw was luckier than other venues in that they had certain areas that were deemed essential under the Homeland Security Act, particularly in regard to animal care. This required some staff to continue to work at the park as the pandemic unfolded across the community

Another challenge for the staff at Chehaw was continuing to fulfill the park and zoo’s educational mission. Once school groups stopped coming to the park, the education staff was able to refocus, gearing up to do video productions and create virtual learning opportunities for schools, students and parents who were looking for educational materials for homeschooling.

As talk of easing the restrictions started to circulate, the next immediate challenge for the park was to ensure that any actions toward re-opening were in line with the governor’s guidelines and the requirements of local leadership.

“One of our early concerns was whether we could meet the requirements of social distancing and ensure that large groups did not congregate,” Gregors said. “We planned for that and saw an opportunity to open the park’s open spaces, including the trails and open areas where families could have picnics.”

The park opened last Tuesday, and more than 1,000 visitors have come through the gates in the first week of limited operation.

Chehaw still needed some PPE items related to signage, masks, and employee screening. Once these items were in place, the zoo re-opened. During the past four days, including the Memorial Day weekend, 590 visitors toured the zoo.

During the closure, Chehaw had to scale back on many issues related to maintenance as these duties were not considered essential services. One obvious example is the bahia grass, which has sprouted with recent seasonal rain.

“We are starting to address this,” Gregors said. “We have bid out the lawn services, and that work started Tuesday.

“You will see more routine upkeep in the coming weeks. We still have some damage from Hurricane Michael, and a grant from the Georgia Forestry Commission should address that. We have had a few companies out working on a limited basis addressing FEMA and USDA issues.

“We also had to conserve our financial resources to ensure we could continue to operate and re-open once that time came.”

But more importantly to Gregors is the fact that, “We did not have any of our staff at all three venues (Chehaw, the Flint RiverQuarium and Thronateeska Heritage Center) test positive for COVID-19.”

Staff Photo: Tom Seegmueller