All County Parks Will Be Shuttered Through Memorial Day

SAN ANGELO, TX — The parks in the county will soon be closed, according to an order leaked to San Angelo LIVE! this morning.

The order, soon to be signed by the county’s local Health Authority Dr. James Vretis, mandates the parks in Christoval called Pugh Park and the causeway/low water crossing at Loop 110 in the town, Foster Park near the Boy’s Ranch cutoff, and Mineral Wells Crossing of US 277 south closed to the public from 6 p.m. May 7 until 11:59 p.m. May 31.

The dates mean the county parks will be closed for Memorial Day weekend.

The county parks are different from the parks within the jurisdiction of the City of San Angelo. The city parks are not impacted by this order.

Over the past weekend, the county parks were crowded and ample trash was left behind as of Monday morning. Sources tell us the decision to shut down the county parks had everything to do with the lack of social distancing at the locations and to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus and little to do with the trash.

As of yesterday, 83 people in Tom Green County have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the mitigation and testing began Mach 18. Of those 83 people, 58 have been released from observation. There have been 2,353 tests conducted.

Of those tested, 3.6 percent were positive for COVID-19. As a percentage of all citizens in the county, 0.07 percent have been diagnosed as positive. Generally, a COVID-19 test is not administered unless the patient is showing symptoms.

Of the 2353 tests, however, approximately 500 were administered at one workplace regardless of symptoms, at the Rambler solar project in the northwest side of the county. Approximately 22 of the 83 positive results came from that testing effort.