If the temperature hits 100 degrees or higher this summer, the city of Denton collaborates with community partners to offer cooling stations at various public locations for anyone in need.
If the temperature hits 100 degrees or higher this summer, the city of Denton collaborates with community partners to offer cooling stations at various public locations for anyone in need.
If the temperature hits 100 degrees or higher this summer, the city of Denton collaborates with community partners to offer cooling stations at various public locations for anyone in need.
The public cooling stations will be in local recreation centers, libraries, fire stations and shelters. Since they will only be available when temperatures reach over 100 degrees, the city will notify people of the cooling stations’ opening at least 24 hours in advance on social media, according to Courtney Douangdara, deputy director of community services.
When weather permits, the cooling stations will provide sitting areas, water fountains, restrooms and handwashing stations. The majority of the fire station locations will not have sitting areas but will provide all other accommodations, Douangdara said.
The Denton public libraries, shelters and recreation center communal areas will still be available for the public to seek refuge from the heat, even if temperatures are less than 100 degrees. The city recommends calling cooling station locations before arriving to verify availability.
Though North Denton has fewer cooling stations than other parts of the city, Denton’s homeless outreach team will patrol the area more frequently, Douangdara said.
Our Daily Bread, which runs Denton’s newest community shelter together with Monsignor King, and the Salvation Army continue to collaborate with the city of Denton to provide shelter from extreme heat. The new community shelter, which opened in December, is also open 24/7.
New this year, the shelter is adding new daytime hours for cooling stations, as well as overnight hours, as another option for people without housing in need of food and protection from the heat.
“Folks were having to leave shelters in the morning and walk across town to get a meal, pop into a library or somewhere to have a cool place to stay, then walk back to shelter at night. That’s no longer the case,” Douangdara said.
Though local meteorologists do not expect this summer to be as record-breaking as the year before, they expect that North Texas will still have above-average temperatures the next few months.
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