COVID-19 might impact city’s holiday event

Seguin, TX, USA / Seguin Today

Darren Dunn

(Seguin) — The city of Seguin is trying to figure out if some popular holiday traditions will be allowed to return this year. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the Fourth of July festivities in Seguin this year. Things like Freedom Fiesta, the fireworks show and the Fourth of July parade were all canceled to try to prevent the spread of the virus.

Parks Director Jack Jones says the city is facing a similar decision with the Lighted Holiday Stroll Parade, plus the city’s Cocoa Sip & Stroll and the North Pole Stroll events all to be held in December in downtown Seguin.

The Seguin City Council met last week to begin having some of these discussions about the upcoming holiday season. Jones told the council that staff is still moving forward with plans for the events, but they need to be prepared for whatever the situation calls for at that time.

“I think we are in a position like we were when we talked about the July Fourth Parade. The council made a position. Things were looking good, let’s just proceed but let’s keep an eye on things. If things get bad, we can always just cancel or make other alternatives. I think we are in the same boat. Things are looking good. Things are getting better out there but we are still three months away,” said Jones.

Jones says some things are beyond the city’s control, but he says they want to be prepared to host some sort of holiday events for the community, even if that means things will have to be modified to try to keep people safer.

“We’ve been planning. People are asking. We are prepared to move forward but we are also prepared to go a different direction as well. I’m not sure what direction we are going to go. You could do some things. Some things you can’t do. It just depends on what the governor is doing and what’s happening with COVID out there, with the parade. We have about 80 entries typically. We got the bands. We’ve got the high schools involved so that’s another layer – that’s to be determined and they may not be allowed to do anything off campus. It’s pretty restricted even on campus,” said Jones.

Jones says not as many people show up for the Lighted Holiday Parade in Seguin. The crowd is significantly smaller than what you normally see during the Fourth of July parade. But he says there’s a big difference. He says the density of people crowded into Central Park is much, much higher for the holiday events that officially kick off the Christmas season in Seguin. He says that’s one of the challenges they have in putting on their normal event this year.

“The big thing about the stroll is you gather in Central Park. Everybody is together. You have the whole block full of people, lights up, all the Christmas trees, the music, everything, it’s all in Central Park and so a bunch of people are there. It’s shoulder to shoulder. That’s the concern if we are still fighting COVID,” said Jones.

Even if their plans have to be modified, Jones says there are still some traditional things that they can still do this year. He says they may just need to shift things around in some cases.

“In the Central Park area, you have about 18 businesses and folks that are doing Christmas trees and that can happen no matter what. You have a Christmas tree contest, decorating and all that stuff but the parade entries, we haven’t gotten too much interest in it yet but we haven’t really put it out as much either. We can certainly start making phone calls and telling folks, ‘hey, we are going to try this but keep in mind, we might need to do Plan B. Plan B might be aesthetic. People drive around and everybody goes to maybe Max Starcke Park East, maybe Seguin Events Complex and do kind of a drive by,” said Jones.

The council liked the idea of a static Christmas display being put up somewhere, which would allow people to stay in their cars as they drive by and see the holiday lights. Councilman Jeremy Roy says he supports anything that helps to mitigate the spread of the virus, especially when you consider the fact that we will also be in the middle of flu season. Roy, who at his day job, has gotten to see the tragedy of COVID-19 first hand. Roy is the director of pastoral care at Resolute Health Hospital in New Braunfels. Roy says we can still celebrate Christmas, but some of those public celebrations might look a little bit differently this year.

“If we are making plans to do something really creative, to make things safer and to mitigate the risks, otherwise, I think I would have to be against it. But I don’t know why I have to explain but you all know. I work at a hospital. I saw a tremendous amount of tragedy, loss of life, one of my dear friends, a physician, is now on a lung transplant list and fighting for his life because he took care of COVID patients and the impact it has on healthcare, nurses, doctors and communities, I can’t get behind anything that is not going to go to great lengths to keep our community safe. Even if the numbers are low cause — they are low thank God. It has made going to work a little bit more normal. But it was not normal for a very long time and I don’t want to go through that again,” said Roy.

The city is having this conversation at a time when the COVID-19 numbers are stagnant or generally trending lower, and hospitalization rates are also down. City Manager Steve Parker says they will continue to watch the numbers, and come up with a plan that keeps the community safe, while also allowing some version of Seguin’s holiday favorites to continue.

“We continue to look at the numbers. To be honest, the numbers we state are completely unreliable. They change daily. There’s no reliance on that but we do continue to keep close contact with the hospital. I had a conference call this afternoon. They are still averaging less than one patient per day. They do have four people in the hospital which is a little bit of an uptick. It wasn’t the uptick we were expecting with Labor Day weekend and the schools coming back with sporting events and things like that so that’s a really good thing but it is something we will have to continue to monitor,” said Parker.

The parade isn’t the only event that will likely be impacted this year. Kyle Kramm, director of the city’s Main Street program, says that the downtown stroll events, like the popular Cocoa Sip-N-Stroll will likely have to modified in some way. Kramm says they may just sell the mugs, or find some other way to hold the event. He says it’s something that they will likely need to decide soon, because they have some deadline approaching.

“So, we can’t really wait until Nov. 17 to cancel things – like we are already behind in placing the order for mugs because of the fact that we are not sure how many to order. We had already said we were going to do 800 which is 200 less than last year. Now, we are talking about knocking it down to 500 just because if we are not able to have the event, we don’t know how many people are still going to want to purchase the mug. So, the mug is the largest expense of the year for us,” said Kramm.

Staff will continue working on its plans for this year’s holiday events. They will balance the need for the community to come together and celebrate the holidays, while also making sure that whatever is done is done so safely. The issue will be brought back to the council on November 17, and that’s when the determination will be made if the events can continue, in some form, this year or not.

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