MEDICAL LAKE — No public event will be approved in Medical Lake city limits until Oct. 31 at the earliest, city administrator Doug Ross announced at the April 21 city council meeting.
This means events like Founders Day and the Blue Waters Bluegrass Festival will not happen this summer.
Ross said several large events in Spokane were being cancelled or pushed back by the sponsors. After talking with several people, he decided to pause events in Medical Lake as well.
Ross told the Free Press that event organizers need time to plan their events. He said organizers have been asking him if they will be able to go forward as scheduled.
“I kept saying I don’t know, and they kept pressing me for an answer because they need to plan and get their deposits in on equipment, or talent, or anything else,” Ross said. “Cancelations have to occur in time for them to get their deposits back so that they aren’t losing money.”
Ross says he knows his decision might not be popular with some people.
“I was pushed to make a decision. I spoke with some people, did my homework and that’s the decision I made,” Ross said. “I understand if it’s unpopular, but I stand by it 100% … “I’m not going to apologize for it because I think it is the right thing to do.”
Ross said committing to summer events was not possible because he doesn’t know if Gov. Jay Inslee will allow large gatherings by then.
City Councilwoman Jessica Roberts expressed disappointment that a decision to cancel events for six months was made without consulting the council.
“Public health doesn’t need consensus,” Ross replied.
Ross told the Free Press that the city administrator approves all large events in city limits.
Roberts acknowledged that and said she realized the council has no say on canceling events but added that she was “disheartened that everything is cancelled for next six months” instead of seeing where we are after 90 days.
Ross said that wouldn’t have helped organizers be able to plan their events.
“If we waited 90 days, we would be right back to, ‘We need an answer,’” Ross said. “It wouldn’t help anyone, honestly. At least for the group who talked to me, it wouldn’t have helped.”
Ross said the decision was made to prevent future shutdowns should a second wave of the virus hit this winter.
“This is public health,” Ross said. “I think it is really important to get our businesses back up and running and to do everything we can to prevent them having to close up again if we see a second wave … If I errored on the side of caution and this is the biggest mistake I make while working here, I can live with that.”
Ross said if the state reopens, postponed summer events could occur beginning Nov. 1, should organizers choose. Organizers of the Blue Waters Bluegrass Festival have already postponed their event to August of 2021.
“Our sense is that even if the situation begins to improve over the next couple months, large gatherings of people from a broad region that has seen significant impacts from the virus, would be ill advised and potentially endanger festival attendees,” said Steven Meltzer of the Blue Waters Bluegrass Festival said in an email.
Jeremy Burnham can be reached at [email protected].
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