By Guy Busby
BAY MINETTE – Citing concerns over COVID-19, County commissioners denied permission Tuesday for the last Mardi Gras parade planned to roll on Baldwin streets.
The third-annual Fort Morgan Mardi Gras Parade had been scheduled for Feb. 14, the Sunday before Mardi Gras. The parade would roll on 1.9 miles of streets in the community.
At their meeting Tuesday, county commissioners said they did not feel the event was appropriate during the pandemic.
“My concern would be that many others that would normally not go there went there. I personally would have problems supporting that parade. I would like to them to postpone it, Commission Chairman Joe Davis said.
By Guy Busby
FAIRHOPE – Proposed changes in the South Beach bluff that had drawn complaints from some residents are being dropped from the draft of the Fairhope Working Waterfront plan, designers and city officials said.
A sand beach south of the Fairhope Pier has also been dropped from the proposal, Scott Hutchinson of Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood an engineer working on the project, said.
“The big items are no beach and no bluff work,” he told City Council members on Jan. 11.
Council members and Mayor Sherry Sullivan will consider the new draft of the plan and take action on the proposal at an upcoming meeting, officials said.
APR news feature Gulf coast Mardi Gras, in a COVID-19 world
Carnival festivities are a serious matter on the Gulf Coast. In the last 150 years, two world wars were the only things to cancel Mardi Gras. Generations have grown up watching the magic of parades rolling through the night. But now, many parades scheduled for 2021 are already called off. The reason is concern over COVID-19. Some other groups are still waiting to see what the upcoming weeks bring. Organizing a parade and other Mardi Gras events is a year-round process involving hundreds of people. One mystic society member said it wasn’t an easy decision to call it off.
By Guy Busby
FAIRHOPE – The Fairhope New Year’s Eve ball drop and other events to celebrate the end of 2020 have been canceled as a precaution against the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic that has marked most of the year.
Mayor Sherry Sullivan announced the cancelation at the Dec. 14 City Council meeting.
“We do plan to cancel the city New Year’s Eve event in light of COVID,” Sullivan told council members. “We just don’t feel like that’s going to happen this year. We did not want to encourage any gatherings and y’all know better than anyone that the tents do create a gathering and also the stage and the ball drop so we will not be doing that this year.”
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