When Williams Lake is allowed to re-open its public facilities staff will be using a new disinfecting machine to ensure public safety during the COVID-19 pandemic and moving into the future.
“It’s a Clorox 360 machine and it creates an electrostatic-charged fog of disinfectant that clings to all surfaces,” said the City’s chief administrative officer Milo MacDonald. “It’s antibacterial, anti-fungal and a really effective way of ensuring there is no residual risk.
The new machine will come in handy as the City begins to plan for opening up places such as the Cariboo Memorial Recreation Complex.
“These kinds of machines are going to be an important part of convincing the public that it is safe to engage in recreational activity indoors.”
MacDonald said the machine has a gun that produces a fog and produces an electric charge on the fog particles.
“The fog particles cling to all the surfaces, go underneath crevices and surfaces, so it’s a uniform and thorough clean.”
It will be used in other public facilities as well to give properties a deep clean.
Read more: COVID-19: B.C. prepares to restart more retail, services, offices in May
“We will also try and find ways to make it available to other partners and governments that don’t have a machine like it.”
Purchased through the City’s janitorial supplier, the Clorox 360 came from the United States.
A tough thing to source, because there is a substantial demand globally for them, MacDonald said the supplier was able to get one for the City to the tune of about $6,200.
Solvent for the machine is fairly expensive — around $35 a bottle — but it lasts for 10,000 square feet. The solvent dries fully in two minutes and is non-toxic.
“It’s a really effective way of providing the public some reassurance that their public spaces are safe and we are going to find ways to fully deploy that machine to reduce the risk to the public.”
A second one is on order, he added.
As for when the complex might re-open to the public, MacDonald said there seems to be more discussion coming from the provincial health officer and the provincial government about what measures might be let up.
“We just want to be prepared.”
Read more: Keep ‘pandemic bubbles’ small, top doctor urges as B.C. prepares to loosen rules
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