Lighthouse Park Open For Memorial Day

Local beachgoers can stretch out in the sun this Memorial Day weekend — so long as they keep their blankets 15 feet apart from one another — now that the city has decided to partially reopen Lighthouse Point Park for the summer kick off holiday.

People who love to celebrate this country’s independence by watching colorful explosions in the sky, however, are out of luck: The city has canceled the annual July 4 fireworks display.

Mayor Justin Elicker gave those updates Wednesday afternoon during his daily coronavirus-related virtual press briefing, held online via the Zoom teleconferencing app and on YouTube Live.

Elicker (pictured) said that the city will be reopening Lighthouse Point Park this Saturday, Sunday, and Monday for the long Memorial Day weekend.

He said that the partially reopened park will only allow in 100 cars at a time.

The city will also be removing many if not all of the park’s picnic tables so as to reduce the likelihood of large groups gathering in any given place.

And visitors who decide to soak in the sun on the sand will have to keep their beach blankets 15 feet apart from one another.

“It’s a somewhat limited enjoyable time at the beach,” he said.

There will be no lifeguards on duty, he added. ​“People can swim at their own risk.”

City spokesperson Gage Frank told the Independent that, in addition to the Memorial Day opening, the city plans to open up Lighthouse Point Park for cars on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays moving forward for the rest of the summer.

Click here for more information about state guidelines around the partial reopening of beaches throughout Connecticut for Memorial Day.

Elicker also said Wednesday that the city has canceled the annual July 4 fireworks display above East Rock.

The mayor said that the city, like many other municipalities throughout the state, decided to cancel the explosions-in-the-sky event because of the likely difficulties of preventing spectators from gathering in large groups and not practicing social distancing.

Other updates included:

• The city now has 2,321 confirmed positive Covid-19 cases and 91 related fatalities.

• City Health Director Maritza Bond and Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli said that Wednesday’s Phase 1 partial reopening of eligible local restaurants, retailers, and offices appeared to be going smoothly. Bond said that city health inspectors have not found any issues or concerns so far in regards to outdoor dining operations complying with the governor’s limited capacity and cleaning protocols.

Piscitelli added that around 250 to 260 local businesses have self-certified with the state, indicating that they have read through the governor’s Phase 1 reopening guidelines and pledge to be in compliance with them if and when they reopen. He said some of these businesses are likely barbershops and hair salons whose owners filled out the self-certification form before Lamont changed course and decided to exclude that line of business from the Phase 1 reopening.

Piscitelli described the partial reopening of outdoor dining restaurants and retailers, mostly downtown, as ​“a really nice, slow start.” He said said six retailers on Chapel Street downtown and six retailers on Broadway all opened their doors on Wednesday. He pointed to this list of restaurants with approved limited outdoor dining as giving a look at some of the food establishments that have definitely partially reopened on Wednesday. Click here for a complete list of restaurants that have applied to the Health Department for outdoor dining license renewals.

• Marietta Vazquez, a pediatrician at the Yale School of Medicine and Yale New Haven Hospital, said that the Community Health Care Van (pictured above) has now treated a total of 60 patients during its three weeks of operation. The van and its doctors travel by appointment only to tend to low-income mothers and babies recently discharged from the hospital. The doctors help weigh newborns, make sure that breastfeeding is going ok, do blood pressure checks, and schedule follow-up telehealth appointments.

Vazquez said that the van currently only treats existing YNHH patients, and that it only has funding to run until the end of the month. She said the doctors who run it have applied for grants, and that they would love to expand their coverage to include more patients and more health care services. The goal of the van is to have ​“the care come to the communities.

She encouraged anyone interested in supporting the van and its doctors to reach out to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or to call Vazquez at 203 – 737-2883.

• Elicker said that the state and the city are still supporting roughly 200 homeless individuals who have been decompressed from shelters to local hotel rooms during the pandemic. He s

“The state is funding the sites until the last day of May and is working to get an extension from FEMA so that that funding will last for a longer period of time,” he said. ​“We’re obviously anxious to have more certainty around that.” If state funding runs out to help keep homeless individuals in hotel rooms and out of currently-closed shelters, he said, the city would have ​“a significant challenge on our hands.”

He said the city Health Department also plans to test everyone who is willing to get tested among that 200-person group ​“as part of our overall, comprehensive strategy for testing everyone possible, particularly vulnerable populations.”