When it's hot out and you need to get out of the house, it's natural to think of splash pads or water parks are places to cool off.
While these can be great choices for cool fun, Nick Tomaro wants to remind people to remember the simple options. He's a housing services interventionist at Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services.
"We need to do a better job sometimes of talking about this in a more straightforward way," Tomaro says. "If you're at home without air conditioning and need to beat the heat, [think of] places you don't usually go like senior centers, libraries or museums."
These can include public options like pools or private institutions places like grocery stores and movie theaters. The important thing is finding a spot to bring your core body temperature down.
"We want to highlight the places that are open to people everyday that sometimes we don't think about," Tomaro says.
Tomaro says when he first started in local government, he said it was common for officials to create dedicated cool spots for heat-related emergencies. However, this also meant needing to advertise that they existed, and when they would be open.
Over time, local government has opted for simpler options.
"Opening up separate dedicated spaces is not always the best use of our capacity, not to mention there really is no specific dedicated for funding" for cooling sites, Tomaro says.
