FAIRMONT — Martin County commissioners have approved allowing Cedar-Hansen and Perch Lake Parks to be open for camping as of today, with some modifications.

No group camping will be allowed, meaning just one camper or tent per site. In addition, no new reservations for shelter houses for parties or other gatherings will be accepted.

County Engineer Kevin Peyman explained the issue to the board.

“The [park] board unanimously recommended that we do open the parks for camping for both primitive sites and hook-up sites,” he said. “They’re also recommending opening the bathrooms at the same time, with extra cleaning, and signage to practice social distancing. So we have signs made up for bathrooms, shelter houses and other common areas.

“Shelter houses will be open for daytime use, but no reservations will taken for large groups. Every other table will have a sign to not be used in the shelter houses to accommodate that social distancing.”

The major change for campers will have to do with spacing, to ensure social distancing.

“Cedar-Hansen has a lot of group camping where you can pile two or three campers on one camp site because the sites are pretty large,” Peyman noted. “The state guidelines recommends 50-foot spacing between campers, so in talking about that the park board is recommending that we limit the camping to one camper per camp site. That should allow us to create that spacing.

“The primitive areas that don’t have designated spacing as much might have to be signed in certain spots to meet that 50-foot spacing. The drawback is it will reduce the amount of visitors that the parks have, especially with something like the Fourth of July weekend, where people come in and pile two or three campers on one site.

“But we do have signs made up saying ‘No group camping’ and ‘One camper per site,’ and the park board felt that we could reopen for camping but yet meet those guidelines.”