Cheney concerts, movies put on hold

CHENEY – The best laid plans of mice and men can these days fall victim to bugs.

That’s the gentle way of saying the Parks and Recreation Department’s plans for resuming the annual Concerts in the Park and Friday night movies at Sutton Park has been delayed due to measures surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.

In a story in last week’s Cheney Free Press, city officials had hoped to launch both series this week, with the first concert July 15 and movie July 17. The concerts would run each Wednesday through Aug. 19 – except for no performance on July 22 – with the movies slated each Friday through Aug. 14.

Those plans were based upon Spokane County moving up a phase in Gov. Jay Inslee’s “Safe Start Washington” plan for a county-by-county approach to getting the state’s economy going. But with most of the county seeing a sharp rise in positive new cases of COVID-19, the disease carried by coronavirus, along with hospitalizations the past two weeks, those plans to move up have been put on hold.

“We were really hoping to be in Phase 3 by then, but it is fairly obvious we will not be,” Cheney City Administrator Mark Schuller said in an email.

To conform with social distancing requirements of maintaining six feet between individuals, Parks and Recreation staff were going to set up orange cones outlining areas where people could sit and adhere to the requirement. Under Phase 3, outdoor gatherings of 50 or fewer people are allowed as long as social distancing is practiced — but under the current Phase 2 conditions, only gatherings of five people or fewer outside a household are allowed.

Part of the state’s phased reopening requires counties to meet disease activity metrics of fewer than 25 new cases per 100,000 population over a 14-day period prior to applying to move up, flat or decreasing rates of hospitalization and virus person-to-person transmittal of less than one.

According to state Department of Health information, as of July 12, Spokane County was running 160.3 new cases per 100,000 with 826 confirmed new cases over the past two weeks.

During that time period – June 30 – July 12 – confirmed cases in Cheney (99004 zip code) have rise from 38 to 69, from 21 to 26 in Airway Heights and 10 to 19 in Medical Lake. Hospitalizations have risen countywide, with the transmission number remaining above one for all of Eastern Washington.

Schuller said both the concert and movie for this week have been postponed. Officials were still working on contingency plans at press time Tuesday, July 14, for both series.

While the Friday, July 24, movie remains in question as well, the earliest the concert series could start if conditions allow would be July 29, although that also is in question.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].