County Parks to Stay Open During “Stay at Home” Order

ST. CLOUD -- As Minnesotans settle-in to Governor Tim Walz' Stay at Home order, many of us will be looking to get outside and recreate.

Stearns County Parks Director Ben Anderson says their leadership team has agreed to keep the county parks open...for now.

Having our staff around to kind of monitor what parking lots are looking like, how people are moving through the park, are they staying the appropriate distance apart?   To make sure we're not getting big groups of people under picnic shelters and things of that nature.  Really at this point, it's just to monitor to see how the response is to see if any further action is needed.

Anderson says they will have maintenance staff on hand for extra cleaning as well.

He says the three playgrounds within the parks system will be posted as off-limits during this time.

Benton County Administrator Monty Headley says Benton County parks are also open to the public during this time.

St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis has signed an executive order prohibiting large gatherings in city parks limiting usage to 10 people or less at one time.