The Park City Council unanimously decided to cancel all events for the summer season. The council did not approve a 4th of July parade, fireworks or hosting the long running volleyball tournament in the park. The list of cancellations includes Triple Crown baseball and softball, Park City Soccer and Lacrosse tournaments along with Miners Day gatherings.
Until now, the Park City Council had not cancelled any events since the outbreak of COVID-19 in mid-March. Prior to this decision, many events and activities were cancelled by the event organizers. An extensive discussion occurred in Thursday’s city council meeting and included input from the Summit County Public Health Director Rich Bullough. He told council there are disconcerting trends in the COVID-19 infection rate in the county.
“Unfortunately, our trends are not good right now. Our numbers generally are better than surrounding counties, but these following trends are real concern. The proxy transmission rate, which again is the infection rate, has increased steadily for a significant amount of time. Since June 10th it has exceeded the 1.5 that is the goal of the state. And by the way 1.5 is too high in our opinion. Anything above 1 means the disease is spreading. It's growing so we've exceeded that since June 10th and our current rate is 2.5. That's not a good trend.”
He said the data on travel-related cases is not good either. Those increases have been growing from 0% in the last part of May to a current 13%.
Council member Becca Gerber said she was concerned about the city being able to enforce guidelines such as mask wearing and social distancing during an event that brings thousands of people to town. While experts have less concern over outdoor activities, Gerber said she is worried about the after-hours activities that occur.
"Personally, I just feel like it’s okay if we don’t have events for a season. You know, I don't think that’s shutting down town. I think that people are still coming. We've seen that over the past several weeks that people are coming in. They're going shopping. I don't think we need to make an extra effort to invite people from around the country to come to town right now."
Mayor Andy Beerman didn’t vote on the issue because there was unanimous support from council to cancel summer events. He said the public has given him direction to err on the side of caution.
“Council is pretty clear and what I will say is like Nann mentioned getting caught in the grocery store, I have got my phone and my inbox clogged right now with residents that have concerns about these events. And I think how much that is perception versus reality? Reality is this town is very fragile right now we got hit hard this winter. It scared everybody. It caused a lot of health risks. It had huge economic impacts, and everybody feels like they've made large sacrifices because they have to get us to this point on the road to recovery.”
A half a dozen people provided council with public input during the meeting with opinions split on allowing summer events.
There are some technicalities which city staff and the legal department must clarify. A formal vote cancelling summer events will be taken in the next city council meeting.
"triple" - Google News
June 26, 2020 at 10:44AM
https://ift.tt/3fWuaQ4
Triple Crown, Soccer Tournament And Fourth Of July Nixed This Summer - KPCW
"triple" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3dc0blF
https://ift.tt/2WoIFUS
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Triple Crown, Soccer Tournament And Fourth Of July Nixed This Summer - KPCW"
Post a Comment