The Durango Community Recreation Center will reopen next week with new guidelines to prevent the spread of COVID-19 within the facility, but it will remain closed Saturdays and Sundays.

Visitors will be required to bring their own basketballs, volleyballs and other sports items because checkout equipment will be unavailable.

The city government worked to reopen the rec center first because it is a “community need to have a place to exercise,” said Mitchell Carter, spokesman for the city of Durango.

As with most reopenings, the rec center will reopen in phases. Phase 1, beginning Monday, includes reduced hours of operation, from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Friday.

During this initial phase of reopening, the workout area, indoor track, gym, racquetball courts, pools and hot tub will be available to use. Locker rooms and showers will also be open.

A maximum of four people will be allowed in the hot tub to ensure 6 feet of space between them, said Kelli Jaycox, assistant recreation director with the city of Durango.

But the lap pool can still fit about 33 people, or three people per lap lane.

The number of people the leisure pool can accommodate depends on the activity. If there is a water aerobics class, the pool can fit about 25 people spaced 6 feet apart, because they are mostly staying in one place. If there is a swimming class, the leisure pool can fit six people, with three swimmers per lane.

“The leisure pool is not open for play swimming for kids,” Jaycox said. “We don’t have the capacity for that yet.”

The pools are opening purely for exercise purposes, Jaycox said.

While the Durango kids swim team will train in the pool, there will be an instructor to ensure the kids are staying 6 feet apart.

Water fountains will not be available. The rec center is encouraging visitors to bring their own water bottle.

Programs such as the Durango Swim Club, the Master Swim Program, swimming lessons and fitness classes will also resume Monday.

The Parks and Recreation Department also released updated guidelines for the reopening, including mandatory face masks, maintaining 6 feet of distance between visitors and cleaning equipment before and after use.

With the limitations, there might be a line to get in because fewer people will be allowed into the center. As part of the new guidelines, the center asks visitors to limit workouts to 90 minutes to allow for better turnover, according to the website.

The guidelines the rec center and the Parks and Recreation Department created were based on guidelines from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Passes for the center that were placed on hold will be extended for 105 days, the number of days the center was closed.

The second phase of reopening is set to begin July 13 and would include amenities such as the game room, the climbing wall and child care options.

If the game room or the climbing wall were open, staff members would have to clean each button or stepping hole between uses, which isn’t practical, Jaycox said.

The Durango Public Library remains closed with no potential date set for reopening.

“The library is a sticky situation because it is a place where people congregate,” Carter said.

Libraries fall under a different category in Gov. Jared Polis’ “Safer at Home” order, so the county would have to get a special variance to open the library earlier.

Sandy Irwin, the Durango Public Library director, said in an email the library is currently quarantining books for three days based on scientific studies that found the virus lives on book pages for up to three days.

Library staff is trying to figure out how to quarantine materials that visitors may have touched.

Additionally, some of the library staff members are in vulnerable populations for COVID-19, leaving the facility understaffed at the moment because they should not return to work, Irwin said.

ehayes@durangoherald.com