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Canceled event to live on in bits and pieces
After being canceled because of Wilma, Founder's Day festivities will be included in upcoming events.
By PHIL DAVIS
Published October 21, 2005
NEW PORT RICHEY - Hurricane Wilma's path still might be uncertain, but the massive storm already has scattered the city's Founder's Day events.
Founder's Day organizers canceled this weekend's festivities, moving many activities to other upcoming festivals, after Wednesday's grim forecast showed Wilma as a powerful, fast-moving hurricane on a predicted course to hit southwest Florida.
"At the time we were looking at a category 5 hurricane, maybe not coming here but we could have had feeder bands," Judy DeBella Thomas, executive director of Greater New Port Richey Main Street, said Thursday. "We still don't know what's going to happen. The storms are more and more capricious."
DeBella said it was unfair to tie up city emergency and utility workers who might be called into action this weekend if the storm turns more to the north.
"A year ago, before Katrina, we might have been more cavalier," DeBella said. "I don't think we could have made any other decision. I don't think anyone will fault us for erring on the side of safety."
The nonprofit group still is assessing the financial impact of the cancellation. The event usually draws 8,000 to 10,000 people over three days, DeBella said.
DeBella was unable to provide specifics on what the organization already has spent in festival preparations. She called the cancellation "judicious."
Most activities and performances are being rescheduled for Main Street Holidays on Dec. 9 to 11.
"So we're having kind of an old fashioned holiday festival in December," DeBella said.
The Sink or Swim river raft race is being postponed until the Cotee River Seafood Festival in May. Winners of the Pasco Camera Exchange photo contest will be announced next week.
This is the first weather cancellation in the nine-year history of Founder's Day.
Said DeBella: "The only weather issue (in the past) was whether it would be a hot chocolate event or a lemonade event, jackets or shorts."
[Last modified October 21, 2005, 02:15:38]
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