Downtown Riverhead is looking to give 2020 a rousing send-off.
The Riverhead BID is planning a New Year’s Eve fireworks display to mark the end of a year that for most people can’t come quick enough.
The fireworks will be shot off in Grangebel Park, probably at about 8 p.m., Riverhead BID Management Association president Steven Shauger said.
“We want to make it a family-friendly event,” Shauger told members of the Riverhead Town Board at the board’s work session today. “We’re encouraging people to come downtown for dinner or maybe takeout and support downtown businesses.”
The BID has money in its budget for the display because it canceled the Fourth of July fireworks event due to the COVID crisis, Shauger said.
Shauger said the BIDMA is working on logistics to ensure that social distancing and other COVID requirements are adhered to.
Supervisor Yvette Aguiar said the BIDMA will have to prepare a plan for the event and submit it to the state for approval.
With downtown Riverhead currently in a “precautionary micro-cluster focus zone,” non-residential gatherings have a 25-person limit, whether indoors or outdoors.
Aguiar said in an interview after the meeting she expects people will view the fireworks from inside their vehicles.
Fireworks displays typically draw large crowds to the downtown business districts. They have always been held around around the Fourth of July holiday, except one year when the event took place in conjunction with the holiday bonfire, after bad weather canceled the fireworks in July.
The idea of an event like this being staged in Riverhead during this holiday season rankled PBMC president and CEO Andrew Mitchell. The hospital has seen a dramatic increase in the number of in-patient COVID admissions in the past couple of weeks, he said, and expects a surge in patients as a result of holiday socializing — even without large gatherings like a fireworks display.
Mitchell said he has asked the town supervisor to reconsider allowing this event considering the current “yellow zone” status of Riverhead and the growing concern about hospital capacity this winter.
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