Fourth of July fireworks, scaled-down park celebration supported by Elk Grove City Council
https://www.elkgrovenews.net/2021/04/fourth-of-july-fireworks-scaled-down.html
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| Elk Grove City Councilmember Darren Suen expresses reluctance over holding a firework celebration. | |
Although they did not formally vote on the matter, the Elk Grove City Council directed city staff last night to hold a Fourth of July firework display.
The annual Independence Day celebration known as the Salute to the Red, White, and Blue was suspended last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns. This year, with the infection rate falling and the wide availability of vaccines, the city will conduct a scaled-down version of the event at the Elk Grove Regional Park.
In past years, the celebration was a day-long affair featuring live entertainment and family-friendly activities. The culmination of the event was the post-twilight firework display.
This year the park is tentatively scheduled to open at 6 p.m. for the firework display. Participants will be encouraged to socially distance themselves and wear masks socially.
As an alternate, the city council was presented an option instead of the firework display to celebrate Independence Day that would encourage residents to decorate their homes and hold neighborhood gatherings. While four councilmembers supported the scaled-back firework event, Councilmember Darren Suen expressed reluctance and supported the neighborhood celebration alternative.
"There is a lot of uncertainty out there, we don't know where things are going," he said.
Suen added there could be expectations that participants will hope to find the event as it was before.
"I just think that why go through all that when the next year [2022] we can certainly go full bore giving everything that was remembered from before," he said. "This provides us an opportunity to try something different."
Regarding the other significant summer city-sponsored event, the Multicultural Festival, councilmembers said they supported spreading out events as recommended by the Diversity and Inclusion Commission. Instead of having a one-day event as has been past practice, aspects of the festival will be incorporated into other city-sponsored activities during August.
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