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Mark Jalufka knows the way Lions Club Tube Rental operates has changed dramatically amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jalufka, who’s the tube rental’s general manager, says he expects safety procedures will constantly change as they try to find the best way to keep patrons and employees safe.
“I’m sure over the next couple of weeks we’re going to be making small changes to make things work better for us and for our customers,” Jalufka said, saying things have already changed since the tube rental’s soft opening on Sunday and official opening on Monday. “The primary goal here is to keep our customers and our employees safe. I’m one of our employees so I want to be safe too.”
Jalufka said the Lions Club Tube Rental has revamped its lines to prevent crowds from gathering to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. There have been social distance markers placed 6-feet apart to space the line out. Plexiglass sneeze guards have been placed at the registers. Only five people at a time will be put in the river together unless it's a family. Every tube is sanitized before and after each use. Jalufka said the number of tubes in its circulation has been reduced to 800 to prevent people from bunching together.
“For those people who want to social distance, they will be able to do it here,” Jalufka said, adding that the tube rental expects to see extra labor hours to make sure social distancing occurs.
A Lions Club Tube Rental employee sanitizes a tube. The Lions Club is sanitizing tubes before and after each use to help keep its employees and customers safe from the coronavirus. Daily Record photo by Stephanie Calvino
Additionally, the Lions Club Tube Rental will limit its transportation to half capacity on its buses and vans, which transports patrons from the end of the tube route at Rio Vista Park back to the San Marcos Recreation Hall. Every bus and fan will be sanitized before and after every trip, Jalufka said.
Following a soft open Sunday and a few days officially open this year, Jalufka said it’s been a good run so far.
“It gave us a good trial run to test out our processes,” Jalufka said of Sunday’s soft opening. “We’ve already made changes and really I’m sure we’ll make more changes between now and the Fourth of July week, which is usually our busiest week of the year. So that’s kind of the day we have to be ready, everything fine tuned as best we can possibly do it this year for the Fourth of July.”
As the summer progresses and more people venture out to tube on the San Marcos River, Jalufka asks that the community bear with tube rental as they figure out the best way to operate safely.
“Things may change from the first time they come here til the next time they come here,” he said. “We will be spending extra money so unfortunately I have a feeling that our profits will be down at the end of the year and the profits all go back into the community. So, unfortunately, it’s probably going to impact some of the social service organizations that we’ve helped support here in the community. My goal is to make that not the case. My goal is to make this just as profitable as we were last year and the year before so that we have that money to give away. But first comes our employees and our customers’ safety.”
The Lions Club Tube Rental is located in City Park, 170 Charles Austin Dr., and its hours of operation are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. with the exception of late-night Thursday, which has hours of 10 a.m.-8 p.m. For more information on fees and safety procedures visit the Lion's Club Tube Rental's website.
