City opens cooling centers with extra precautions to keep visitors safe
With at least a week of 100-plus degree days in the weather forecast, the City of Sacramento Friday opened three cooling centers that will be available from noon to 8 p.m. every day. The centers are currently scheduled to remain open until Aug. 19, but could be extended if the heat wave continues..
At this point, nighttime temperatures are not predicted to exceed 75 degrees for more than three days, the regional trigger for opening cooling centers. But the Sacramento County Department of Public Health nonetheless recommended that they be opened.
Appearing at the Hagginwood Community Center in north Sacramento on Friday, Mayor Darrell Steinberg noted that these are not ordinary times. The public buildings where people can usually go to cool off are closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The mayor was joined by Councilmember Allen Warren and Daniel Bowers, the City’s director of emergency management.
“The obligation is to bring people inside, and at the same time to keep them safe,” Mayor Steinberg said.
In addition to Hagginwood, at 3271 Marysville Blvd., the City has opened a cooling center in the George Sim Community Center at 6207 Logan St. in south Sacramento and in the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria in the Central Library, 828 I St.
The centers will offer special protections to keep visitors safe from Covid infection. These include temperature checks at the door, masks, chairs spread apart for physical distancing and sanitation stations. The City will provide water and snacks.
