Overview
- Parents reported children returning with flea bites last Friday, and town crews inspected the play area and found a heavy infestation concentrated in the sandbox and wood chips.
- Because Fairfax’s code broadly prohibits pesticide use on town property, officials arranged a tarp-and-steam heat treatment with Dominican University and set an initial two-week closure with a tentative reopening around Aug. 7 pending follow-up checks.
- Crews are sealing access beneath a nearby building to exclude raccoons, which town staff say are the likely source, and officials are weighing longer-term changes to ground cover to reduce future reintroductions.
- Local vector-control officials warn fleas have expanded this summer in the humid climate, reproduce quickly and can carry disease, and town leaders cited concerns about chemical exposure to children and runoff into the adjacent creek when rejecting insecticides.
- Fairfax has not sought an emergency exemption to use pesticides and will monitor the playground after treatment before reopening while advising residents to avoid the closed area and check pets for fleas.