BLOUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Area summer favorite Spring Valley Beach Water Park opened for the season Saturday, with new rules in place due to COVID-19.
“Operational wise, it was great,” said co-owner Travis Gilliland of opening weekend. “It went really smooth. People were respectful of everybody’s personal space, as far as space goes out here. The park itself is really big: we have picnic tables scattered out from one end to the other, our pools are huge; there wasn’t any issue with the pool.”
Gilliland said the park was concerned about people lining up for the water slides, but said it went well.
“What we thought, going in, our only area of concern, really, were the lines for the slides,” he said. “For the most part, people did well with that. We have little blue dots out that dictate where they should be waiting next, and as the day went on, people kind of reverted back to, I guess normalcy, and so we just had to gently remind some. We weren’t over-crowded; I didn’t think we would be, just because of everything that’s going on. Opening weekend went about as we expected, but just to be honest, we were happy people came out to enjoy the day, because we had no idea what to expect.”
Gilliland outlined some of the ways Spring Valley is looking out for its patrons.
“Everything is the same with our pools,” he said. “We have hand sanitizer everywhere. We’re checking our employees’ temperatures every day- that’s new. The social distancing dots and stickers we have out, that’s new for us. We also have people out to remind people when they get bunched, you know, ‘Watch your distance,’ but like I said, people have been great with it. For our pools, all of our water is heavily chlorinated anyways; a normal pool operation, chlorination-wise, will take care of the situation. We didn’t have to do anything special there, but we are paying attention and wiping down door knobs and hand rails, that type stuff. As far as some additional cleaning and social distancing stickers, everything else in operation is just about the same.”
One big change is that the park is operating at half-capacity.
“We are operating at a 50% capacity,” said Gilliland. “For us, we’ve had upwards 3,500 on a crazy busy day, so we’re expecting 1,500 to 1,700 to be our half capacity, which would still be a lot of people. Everything we’re doing is subject to how summer plays out. Aside from taking employees’ temperatures, we’re asking the general questions, like, ‘Have you been in contact?’ or, ‘Are you exhibiting symptoms?’ We do allow picnic lunches at the park; people can bring their own and not have to go through the concessions necessarily. There’s plenty of space for them to spread out.”
He continued, “We’re thankful to be open. The way it’s going, we didn’t know just two weeks before opening day if we were going to be open or not. We had certainly hoped we would and prepared like we would be. We’re just thankful for the summer and that we’re open. We encourage that if you have crowd issues, come during the week, as far as not being crowded. Our busiest days are Friday, Saturday and Sunday.”
Spring Valley Beach is located at 2340 County Highway 55, Blountsville, Alabama 35031. It is open seven days a week from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Find out more at www.facebook.com/springvalleybeach or www.springvalleybeach.com.
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