City council reaches consensus to move forward with 4th of July events as planned
21 May 2020
City Council, Covid19, news, Newsletter
Seguin, TX, USA / Seguin Today
(Seguin) — The Seguin City Council wants to give you the freedom to celebrate during the upcoming Fourth of July weekend.
The council gave staff the green light to move forward with the city’s Fireworks Fiesta on Friday, July 3; and the city’s Biggest Small Town Fourth of July Parade in Texas on Saturday, July 4. The move to host both those popular events also paves the way for KWED’s Freedom Fiesta on Thursday, July 2 in Central Park.
The consensus reached by the council on Tuesday night was that both city events should move forward as planned, with a message going out to the public that they should still try to space themselves out to avoid additional spreading of COVID-19.
CVB and Main Street Director Kyle Kramm says staff needed this input from the city, because the events will draw large crowds to downtown Seguin and to Starcke Park for the fireworks show. He says this year’s parade is going to be held on a Saturday, which would normally draw in big crowds. He says the crowds may be impacted because some people may want to avoid crowds during this pandemic, but he says they will have video streaming available for those who want to watch from the comfort of their home.
“You are looking at spectator five rows deep in some places. Ten rows deep in some places especially around Central Park and so there are concerns there of having that large of a crowd and it’s not a confined space but yet, it is current because everyone wants to be right by Austin Street and so we can really advertise that we will be streaming the parade,” said Kramm.
The council was able to reach a decision on the fireworks show fairly quickly, while the parade discussion took a longer time. Councilman Mark Herbold says that the fireworks show should move on, and the city should encourage people to spread out, stick with their family members, and utilize areas around Starcke Park, including the golf course. There was a question about whether or not the city should restrict viewing from the golf course, but Herbold said that would not make sense.
“That wouldn’t be bothering me because everybody has spread out there. Even in the past when we are on there, you don’t want to infringe on people out there, you kind of spread out and I think if we let people know that and they’ve been good. We’ve all been good about social distancing ourselves. Let’s just try to not get too close and keep it spaced out. I think we will be okay,” said Herbold.
Councilman Jeremy Roy says they all think the fireworks show is a good idea, but he also knows that things could change based on what’s happening with COVID-19.
“I think we need to proceed with the fireworks as planned but if we get there and the numbers are up and this thing is not contained, we will have to make some hard decisions at that point,” said Roy.
Council members needed more time on Tuesday night to look at the various options for the parade. One of those options, presented by staff, was to change and lengthen parade route and encourage people to stay in their cars. Police Chief Terry Nichols says his department is prepared to handle whatever situation the council agrees upon, but he said lengthening the parade route created more logistical problems for his officers, and it would do little to really reduce crowd sizes. He says either way, crowds are going to gather and it’s going to be difficult to completely stop them from doing so.
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