The first large summer event at Cayuga County's Emerson Park 鈥 the yearly Father's Day car show聽鈥 has been cancelled due to the likelihood of continuing crowd restrictions from the coronavirus pandemic.
Event organizer Prison City Ramblers decided to cancel this year's show after consulting with Cayuga County Parks and Trails Director Doug Dello Stritto.聽 Knowing social distancing requirements will likely still be in place at that point, the club decided it couldn't expect to hold the show, which attracted hundreds of people.聽
The club's president, Ed Pinckney, explained Tuesday he didn't want to start organizing the show while restrictions on large public gatherings at the state level were still changing on a regular basis, so he and the club decided to cancel.
Another Emerson Park event, the Auburn Rotary Club's Party in the Park, was also cancelled. It was originally scheduled for July 11 and 12.
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But decisions about other trademark summer events at the county's showcase park on the northern shore of Owasco Lake聽鈥 like the Independence Day fireworks show, the Cayuga County Fair and the Great Race 鈥 have not yet been made, Cayuga County Legislature Chairperson Aileen McNabb-Coleman said Tuesday.
Dello Stritto said the department is waiting to address the scheduled events once New York State's PAUSE order is over on May 15 and Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expected to outline the state's next steps.
At that point next week, the department will start meeting to determine a operational plan for the summer. They haven't yet decided the window of summer months to make determinations for聽鈥 whether the county looks only to June, July and August or beyond is yet to be determined.
Dello Stritto said the department hasn鈥檛 yet provide advice about cancellation considerations to organizers of other large because Cuomo just announced metrics to start phasing in reopening on Monday.
The metrics, which were announced following Cuomo's press conference in Syracuse last week, are related to a region's number of hospitalizations, intensive care unit beds and its testing capacity.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 something that our health department and our risk management officer are currently digesting to see how that affects those events,鈥 Dello Stritto said.聽
He noted that the large social events that take place in Emerson Park would be included in the state's last phase of reopening.
"The problem is we don鈥檛 know how long these phases take. So, ultimately, even though we know public gatherings are later phases, that ultimately is going to be a health department call," he said.
McNabb-Coleman also stressed that the decision to carry on with large-scale outdoor events or not would be driven by the health department, which would determine whether the county has met enough criteria to safely hold them.聽
Staff writer Mary Catalfamo can be reached at (315) 282-2244 or mary.catalfamo@lee.net. Find her on Twitter @mrycatalfamo.