Sullivan County Lake Closes Due to Crowds Not Socially Distancing, Wearing Masks

A lake in Sullivan County has decided to close this weekend due to crowds of people not following mandatory social distancing and failing to wear masks.

Lake Superior State Park in Bethel, which is operating by Sullivan County will be closed temporarily starting in the evening of Friday, July 24 through the morning of Monday, July 27.

The areas that are closed include the parking lot, beach area, docks,and the boat launch. There will be regular patrols through the area to ensure people are complying with the closure.

Unfortunately, we have had crowds of people at the park who have not been following mandatory social distancing and mask-wearing. Some have also been swimming, which is currently prohibited due to a lack of lifeguards. We’re sorry for the inconvenience, but we cannot allow this unsafe situation to continue. We hope to bring on some staff to monitor the park on future weekends.

On a personal note, I visited a lake in Pennsylvania recently and I witnessed the same thing. There were crowds of people without masks on, and not following social distancing.

I can understand to a certain degree why people are choosing to not follow the rules, they've been stuck in their homes for months and are craving some sort of normalcy in their lives. But, we have to smarter than that.

Not following the rules will lead to a situation like this, where we will have temperatures in the 90s all weekend and people can't enjoy a nice swim at the lake.

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