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With directives coming from Albany daily because of COVID-19, municipalities are struggling to keep up.  Something that was open today might be closed tomorrow.  Or vice versa.  Empire State Development, the state agency that determines essential and nonessential businesses, made it possible last Friday for golf courses, previously closed, to reopen.  The agency also said marinas, boat launches, and boatyards could reopen.  But what does that mean?  Lansing officials grappled with how state coronavirus directives impact the town marina at the April Town Board meeting.

"The reference to closing marinas to prohibit launching of recreational boats, that's considered non-essential that came up under the guidance issued under 202.6 and 202.8, which means by definition it is guidance that's applicable to nonprofits and businesses, not governments," said Lansing Town Attorney Guy Krogh. "Secondly, it only deals with recreational boating. So,  if someone is going out as a commercially harvest perch for food service of some sort. Is that recreational? I don't know, but I know a lot of perch fishermen will suddenly say it's commercial.  If it's a charter, clearly it's recreational for people that have booked the charter, but it's a commercial boat and it's a commercial offer. I don't know what it means."

Lansing had previously closed its playgrounds, but made the determination that the parks would remain open.  Recreation programs, however, were cancelled.  Myers Park and Salt Point isn't seeing nearly the amount of use it does under normal circumstances, but people are going for walks, and a few children were riding bikes on the basketball court Monday.

Because the Empire State Development guidance does not apply to governments, Krogh said that he advised Parks & Recreation Supervisor Patrick Tyrrell to contact with state and other municipal parks to see how they are handling the situation, so he took a ride to visit various nearby parks  What he found was inconclusive.

"Long Point is open with no posting whatsoever," he said. "The Union Springs launch, which is run by the village, is totally shut down to everything. They blocked it off totally. Treman is still  open the same way. It does not have any posting or anything."

Tyrrell said he interpreted state rules as having different rules for staffed and un-staffed marinas.

"If it is staffed, then it has to be closed," he said. "It's private and staffed it has to be closed. So we haven't posted anything. We're not staffing it. I suppose that there are people that have boat slips that need to put their boat in their slip and should have that ability. So I haven't closed our launch."

It doesn't appear that many people are thinking about boating right now.  While the marina is not actually closed, by the beginning of this week there were almost no boats in slips at the town marina, and during a patch of good weather Monday no boats were visible on the lake from Myers Park.

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