Closing community playgrounds

Sorry, I meant to say playgrounds AND pavilions and covered areas, picnic tables etc.

Have you had any complaints from residents on closed facilities?

All facilities with doors and gates are closed and locked. Signs posted in common parks closed, but folks still out and about.

Formal notice sent via email explaining closures.

All of our facilities are outdoors.
We have a playground, and a covered pavilion with 4 tables.

As of now, our thinking is we will put the responsibility on the residents to clean prior, during, and after use of the playground, and stay out of the pavilion.
We have cameras as well that I check.

If it becomes a problem, I will put police caution tape around these facilities.

I want normalcy as much as possible with health in mind.

During this time, I have to say, our neighborhood looks the best I have ever seen it!!! Trees being clipped, grass mowed and edged, power washing houses!!

Lots of residents walking the trails and sidewalks enjoying the weather, while keeping safe distance..

This is home. People know the rules. I dont want people driving past our beautiful park and seeing yellow tape everywhere... they see and feel enough of it when they leave the neighborhood.

Thoughts?

Absolutely everything that we have is in concrete and cement. We do not have the option of removing a $65,000 play structure or removing tables that are set in cement. The only option we can use, is putting caution tape around it that’s all we can do.
All of us here, as directors, have too many responsibilities, one is upholding the governing documents to the best of our ability and two, maintaining and improving the common areas. That is it. No of course we do much more because we care for our neighborhood, but I think in this case we shall let the homeowners decide.

Our signage ‘Park Closed” are out in our parks - and, ignored.

Not much else is possible, in my mind, with open parks, that are owned by those using them.

I am reading daily now about a doctor, nurse or other health care worker who has died from exposure to COVID-19 as a result of helping patients. There isn't enough PPE, and there likely has been insufficient training in using same. Imagine a hospital trying to hire a new nurse to replace the one who died. Increasingly I believe health care professionals will see employment as a suicide mission (Hippocratic oath be damned) and refuse to work. This is going to exacerbate the daily numbers further. Things will get better but not without a lot more death. I have not heard reports of shortages of morphine to help those suffering pass without pain. But I have read reports from New York that in some hospitals, when a doctor finally gets to a patient, the patient has died.

I am just waiting for the reports of all the Senators who now have COVID-19 due to Senator (and MD) Rand Paul. That's great: Shut down the Senate, one of the principal checks against abuses of power by the Executive and Judicial branches. Maybe this furthers Rand Paul's Libertarian Ideologies. Maybe he's just 110% idiot.

I believe this country and the world will be in for one helluva ride.

I believe lawsuits by individuals against HOAs for keeping their playgrounds open are either (a) not going to happen, or (b) if they do, judges everywhere re going to slam the attorneys representing such plaintiffs hard. I do think HOA's should post notices closing playgrounds, pools and clubhouses.

This is from an article dated September 18, 2018

NEW YORK — An estimated 80,000 Americans died of flu and its complications last winter — the disease’s highest death toll in at least four decades.

I hate to see anyone die before their time, BUT how much of the country is shut down because of the flu. I get my flu shot every year and a pneumonia shot every five years. 17 years ago I had double pneumonia, so I know what that feels like.

There is something more about this COVID-19 that the world is not being told. America now leads the world in infected individuals, and those numbers could be only 1/10 of the real number.

My opinion is this is being handled half-ass backwards. We should be protecting those we know that are at risk, which might be the 10%, not locking up 100%.

In two weeks, I will be traveling back to Florida from California. I might be at risk, but I will not lose any sleep over it.

You have a better answer?

OT: the cynical and amoral investor types should be buying shares in funeral homes, crematoriums and cemeteries - also in drug companies that are working on vaccines and treatments.

Prediction: this is going to be with us in some form until we've developed enough immunity through prior infection or vaccination that the virus can no longer spread.

The common denominator is one's immune system. We have a vaccine for the flu and 80,000 people died in the US as the article stated. People will get the COVID-19 and 95-99% will get better. Those with a insufficient immune system will be at a very high risk. My daughter is at highest of that list with a auto-immune disease of which there is treatment, but no cure.

People are walking around in the world carrying this COVID-19 and have no symptoms. They are not going to be tested. It was reported this morning, an aircraft carrier, USS Teddy Roosevelt has 30 confirmed cases. They have a crew of 5,000 and will test only those who show symptoms. If you have ever been on an aircraft carrier, they don't have 5,000 staterooms you can quarantine people in.

Do you have a question, NpB? Is the person aware that it's not the pool per se, but everything related to it that pool users touch, sit on, etc.?

Agree.

This was my post.
I am gathering that the majority puts signs out, but that really is the gist of it.
The members pay for the commons. It is their property. I am being conservative with this, but I still stand and say leave it up to the homeowners judgement!!

Here's the difference between the HOA board making the decision and leaving it up to the homeowners:

The board has a fiduciary duty to the HOA and must act in its best interest (for example, protecting it from uninsured liabilities). And this duty is "the law" - in other words, people can sue the HOA or the board for negligence, and the court system will likely agree.

Homeowners are free to act in their own self interest.

So a homeowner who has the virus and who is mildly ill can use the facilities without bothering to clean up after himself. I believe that he has a moral duty to his fellow homeowners, but there are no HOA laws that say he has such a duty. And we all know folks who believe that the world revolves around them and to heck with everybody else.

With this is mind, responsible board members will do everything they can to minimize the chances of homeowners passing covid-19 among themselves. That means closing amenities to the extent possible; disinfecting if needed; notifying homeowners via signage, newsletters, website, etc.; and keeping on top of the latest news and pronouncements from scientists and governmental officials about what's happening in your immediate area. HOA boards will want a track record of being proactive when the lawsuits start.

Cathy's Bold Prediction #13: There will be covid-19 lawsuits.

Yeah I agree with no one winning a Covid-19 lawsuit not that one won't be filed... Plus how you going to prove your case? So little testing in our area that you can't even get one. Well unless you pretend to have symptoms and a doctor's note you have a chance...

You're probably right, and we'll have bigger fish to fry for quite a while. But given the silliness we sometimes see in HOAs and COAs, I'm not willing to bet money on it.

Ohio's governor has also been aggressive about dealing with the pandemic, being one of the first to ban large gatherings in his state. However, we've been at the end of the line as far as getting test kits, so our testing has been nowhere near where it needs to be, and we badly need protective equipment for health care workers (right now around 17% of our diagnosed cases are health care workers). One bright spot: Battelle, an Ohio-based R&D non-profit, has developed a process to sterilize and resuse protective gear, just waiting on FDA approval to begin rolling it out.

The governor has also said that when we start to loosen up restrictions, businesses will be required to maintain all the safety procedures that were in place before they closed, and if they can't then they won't be allowed to re-open. Timeline to be determined by epidemiology. Non-negotiable, he said.

I've been about the same, and yes this has been a horrible year for allergies already.

I saw this do-it-yourself covid-19 test, and there is some reasoning behind it. First, take your temperature once a day for a few days so that you know what baseline is for you. Then, if think you may be sick, check your temperature. Then take a deep breath and try to hold it 35-50 seconds. Covid-19 patients are lucky to manage 3-5 seconds. Not perfect, but it may keep you from worrying about sniffles or random headaches (and your tele-medicine doctor will ask you about these same things).

Per the net, I believe the breath holding test is a hoax.

Granted if a person can only hold their breath for only a few seconds, then this sounds like they are at end-stage of some lung disease, including possibly COVID-19.

I too am confounded by allergy symptoms. I am checking my temperature anytime there is a flare-up of same.

Ah, yes, Augustin, the now- infamous "Stanford hospital board" advice hoax.

Yes, Yellow tape and sign might be "ugly," in your beautiful area, Nathan. But the alternative is worse. Boards sometime have to make tough decisions--Boards must lead.

I'm not an attorney, but...

If you are in a city/town/county/state where there is a shelter in place order, parks are being closed down to discourage large groups etc. I could see someone making the "standard of care" argument. IE: Given county city, county etc. directives and the fact that most non essential public and private entities are closing down, if the HOA does not make a reasonable effort to comply and take that standard of care it is being negligent. Our management company, on the advise of it's attorneys and other management companies etc. advised us to close down any public areas and are non-essential (we don't have any) but that was my natural inclination as well.

Beyond that, it would be advisable to also look at your insurance policies to make sure that they have not carved out a pandemic exclusion.