When will Stanislaus bowling alleys, trampoline parks, more reopen from COVID closures?
With Stanislaus County restaurants and movie theaters reopening inside service you might wonder when some of your other favorite indoor recreational activities will be coming back.
Bowling alleys, trampoline parks and other indoor family entertainment centers remain largely closed across Stanislaus County as the pandemic continues and region remains in the red tier. Indeed, indoor recreational facilities should all still be closed in the county according to the state’s color-coded tier system.
Indoor family entertainment centers and recreation officially will be allowed to open to the public again when the county enters the orange tier for coronavirus spread, one tier lower than its current red status.
As that hopeful day looms, many businesses are already making plans. Turlock’s Ten Pin Fun Center, a new family entertainment center that opened 10 months before the pandemic hit, got hundreds of likes earlier this week when it posted an announcement on Facebook that it was “opening soon.”
While the center still does not have an official opening date, Ten Pin General Manager Mike Eggert said the business is starting to bring back employees to prepare for a possible mid-April reopening, depending on the county’s tier status at that time.
The around 65,000-square-foot facility has been completely closed since early December, when the state went into another stay-at-home order. Before that the center has been shuttered through much of the start of the pandemic, reopening its in-house restaurant Deadwood Social briefly in late June before the the county experienced another spike in infections again in early July.
Eggert said after the winter stay-at-home order, the decision was made to close the restaurant’s takeout and delivery service until the whole facility could be safely reopened. They’ve been able to stay afloat through the closures, in part, because of some $931,750 in Paycheck Protection Program COVID-19 federal COVID-relief funding.
Bowling alleys, indoor recreation among last to reopen
Now family entertainment centers like Ten Pin are among the last recreational businesses in the state to be allowed to reopen for indoor operations.
“We took the the COVID procedures very seriously and invested a lot of money so when guests walk into here that it’s safe,” Eggert said. “The frustrating part is you go into Costco and you see people interacting closely. So why can’t we open the bowling center? It’s frustrating that we’re the last to open.”
Eggert said employees are being recalled now, and in about a week retraining should start. He expects to bring back about 65 employees, about half of its staff of 130 before the pandemic hit.
Once indoor recreation is allowed, facilities will be required to limit capacity to 25%. Family entertainment centers with outdoor attractions, like Modesto’s Boomers and Funworks, opened earlier this year with outside activities like kart racing and mini golf allowed in the purple tier.
Ten Pin isn’t the only business with a bowling alley making plans, and crossing their fingers, for reopening. Yosemite Lanes bowling alley in Modesto plans to reopen April 19.
The bowling alley is closed, but its in-house restaurant Strikes & Spares Grill has been open offering takeout and delivery. The business is also staffing up and holding a walk-in hiring event from 4 to 6 p.m. daily April 5 to 8 at the Yosemite Boulevard facility.
McHenry Bowl, Modesto’s other bowling alley, is currently accepting small group private reservations only. Owner Garrad Marsh said the 52-lane north McHenry Avenue facility hopes to reopen as an “exercise facility,” without its attached restaurant and bar. He said the reopening will happen when the county is “solidly in the red, headed toward orange.”
He said they are in the process of calling back staff members, but no definitive opening date is set yet. Like Ten Pin, McHenry Bowl has been helped through federal taxpayer-supported PPP funds, receiving two forgivable loans for more than $350,000.
Expect more safety guidelines, masks at indoor facilities
But bowling alleys aren’t the only ones waiting for the official green light to reopen. Like other shuttered indoor recreation facilities, Rockin’ Jump Trampoline Park in Modesto’s McHenry Village is closed to the public. But last weekend the business advertised it was bringing workers back in a Facebook post that read in part, “As we get closer to our reopen day, we are ready to start growing our team.”
In Turlock, Get Air trampoline park has also already opened, according to a corporate spokesperson from the company’s Utah headquarters. A call to the location said they were only open for private groups and events, and posts on the company’s Turlock Facebook show people inside the facility.
But regardless of when the region’s indoor recreational businesses are allowed to reopen, they will be mask mandates and social distancing safety protocols for guests and employees.
Eggert said Ten Pin plans to be strict with its mask policies, allowing customers to only be unmasked when seated and eating or drinking. If standing to bowl, masks must be worn over the nose and mouth.
“We will be very adamant about that,” he said. Still, even with planned restrictions and limits, he said public response has been overwhelming.
“Our phone has been blowing up,” Eggert said. “A lot of parents are saying, ‘Please open so can take the kids to do something’.”
This story was originally published April 1, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
