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Melodee Mitchell said she cried at the thought of cancelling the community's Fourth of July event, but there was little choice.

Thousands flock to Del Norte County for the annual deck party, parade, festival and fireworks display. Mitchell, chair of the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce committee organizing the festivities, said maintaining a safe social distance to prevent the spread of COVID-19 would be impossible. She couldn't support such a mass gathering of people.

"There were many of us that sat and talked about 'How about if we do this? How about if we do this?'" Mitchell told the Wild Rivers Outpost on Monday. "The bottomline was we just couldn't do it safely. We wanted to be able to make the decision with enough time for people to accept the idea and become creative. Take the holiday and be creative."

Mitchell and the chamber's Fourth of July committee delivered this decision to the chamber’s Board of Directors on Friday.

Before making that decision public at about 5 p.m., chamber representatives spent three hours calling the band that would headline the deck party, local Del Norte County judge Bob Cochran who has organized the parade lineup for years and others involved in putting the event on.

Everyone was supportive, but, Mitchell said, she knows what a blow to local businesses this decision is.

“The Fourth of July holiday, had there not been social distancing guidelines, would have been that holiday that so many of our businesses, restaurants and motels would have generated a lot of revenue,” she said. “My heart broke for our local businesses.”

Crescent City’s Fourth of July celebration brings thousands to Del Norte County. High school classes plan their reunions around the holiday, Mitchell said. Del Norters reconnect with friends, neighbors and loved ones at the Chamber of Commerce’s annual deck party on July 3. The next morning, thousands line the street to watch the annual parade before perusing the plethora of vendors at Beachfront Park.

The holiday ends with a fireworks display over Battery Point Lighthouse, fog or no fog.

This series of events officially begins with the Del Norte Child Care Council’s Sand Castles by the Sea. This non-competitive event draws families to the banks of Elk Creek. But the Child Care Council has canceled it, also due to social distancing concerns brought on by COVID-19, said Mitchell, who is also the Child Care council’s executive director.

“We get a couple hundred people that attend that event,” she said. “And everybody’s sharing and using sand toys. It’s a wonderful non-competitive kick off to the Fourth of July. We’ve had to cancel that as well.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued his stay-at-home order about a week before the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce’s economic summit, scheduled for March 27. Though it had all the speakers lined up and only needed to finalize the menu, Executive Director Cindy Vosburg told the Outpost the chamber had to cancel that event.

The organization spends about three to four months pulling the Fourth of July celebration together, Vosburg said. With indications that gatherings of large crowds is the “last thing” the governor would allow due to the novel coronavirus, the chamber had to make another difficult decision, she said.

“We were literally at the point of no return because we have to pay for the fireworks,” she said. “It’s non-refundable and it’s $30,000. That check was due in February and I’d been dragging my feet on it, waiting for as long as possible.”

Local businesses fund the event to the tune of about $40,000 in sponsorships, Vosburg said. This includes in-kind donations from the Del Norte Solid Waste Management Authority, Recology Del Norte and Hambro WSG.

Those sponsorship ensure that most of the activities are free to the community, Vosburg noted, including the parade, the festival at the park and the fireworks.

“The businesses we reached out to on Friday before we sent out the press release were very supportive and very understanding,” she said. “There are over 50 businesses that do donations and give sponsor dollars and give services to make (the celebration) happen for the community.”

The Chamber announced it was cancelling the Fourth of July celebration before the county Public Health Branch reported Del Norte’s third positive COVID-19 case over the weekend. That patient, a middle-aged Crescent City man, is recovering at home as are those he has had contact with, according to the Del Norte Office of Emergency Services.

Public health nurses are investigating the origins of this new case, but haven’t yet connected the dots, though it doesn’t appear to be travel-related, Public Health Officer Dr. Warren Rehwaldt told the Outpost on Monday.

“Chances are we are not going to connect the dots either,” he said. “It might become clear later, but it’s kind of like a puzzle — we need enough pieces to see the shape of where the last piece needs to fit.”

The two other patients that tested positive for COVID-19 have recovered, according to the Public Health Branch. Out of a total of 314 tests administered, 300 are negative and 11 are pending.

Though a handful of business owners and other Del Norte residents are eager to allow non-essential businesses to open back up, Rehwaldt said he and other public health officials are obligated to enforce the governor’s directive. He acknowledged that for Del Norte County and other rural areas that haven’t had the caseload of Los Angeles, Solano, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, that may be difficult to grasp.

But, Rehwaldt said, there’s no way of knowing how bad it could have gotten in Del Norte County had the community not taken Newsom’s stay-at-home order seriously. He urged people to look at other countries “that haven’t been as careful” — naming Brazil as an example — to see the virus’s devastating effects.

Opening up the economy, relaxing the order that shuttered local lodging facilities, requires a careful backing down of those state-mandated safety measure, Rehwaldt said. Local officials will be looking to the state to determine how to move forward, he said.

“The question is what part of it can we take away to allow some businesses to get back on their feet,” Rehwaldt said. “What things can we modify safely without creating a new crisis. That’s the hard part. Nobody’s done it before. There’s no playbook for this. People are putting their best effort forward using logic, sound reasoning… but it’s something we have no reference to draw on.”

Officials at the state level want increased testing, contact tracing and extra bed space at hospitals in place before they relax social distancing and other safety measures, Rehwaldt said.

Though they’re being cautious, Rehwaldt said, state public health officials know communities that have seen few cases like Del Norte County are “dying on the vine” because they can’t do business like normal. He said he was hoping for flexibility to make low-risk changes in Del Norte County, but the state isn’t ready to let that happen.

“We’re stuck with waiting for everything else to take place around us,” Rehwaldt said. “They understand and they agree that ‘you need to have a little bit of room to maneuver in your counties.’ They’re just not quite there yet.”

As Del Norte County waits for the state to give the go ahead to relax some of the safety measures, the Chamber of Commerce is looking ahead to Sea Cruise. Held the second weekend in October, the annual car show is still a go, Chamber president and Bicoastal Media manager, Larry Timpe said.

“We’re just moving forward,” he said. “And, of course, we’re looking forward to having next year back to normal.”

Since announcing the Fourth of July celebration was canceled, Mitchell said she’s received emails and phone calls from people wanting to help. She said she loves the idea of families having their own backyard barbecues and supporting local firework booths that are annual fundraisers for a variety of folks from Del Norte Youth Football to the Del Norte High School Music Boosters club.
People should also support their local businesses, restaurants, stores and boutiques, Mitchell said.

“We look to them to sponsor us during the year,” she said. “Now’s the time we need to show our support and sponsor them by checking into those businesses and seeing what they have to offer right now.”

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