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COVID-19 RESURGENCE CANCELS MANTECA’S AERIAL FIREWORKS
Only traditional July 4th event is pancake breakfast
no fireworks

Manteca has cancelled the Fourth of July aerial fireworks.

City leaders pulled the plug on the Saturday pyrotechnic show hours after Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered a number of venues to close and for restaurants to cease serving customers in dining rooms due to a surge in COVID-19 hospitalization in San Joaquin County and elsewhere in California.

The number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals within San Joaquin County jumped by 9 in the 24-hour period ending at noon Wednesday to bring the daily coronavirus census to 142. Three weeks ago there were only 20 COVID-19 patients on any given day in the seven hospitals within the county.

The death toll increased to 54 on Wednesday, up from 52 the previous day. The death rate among those with — and who have recovered — from COVID-19 within the county is 1.4 percent, down from 1.7 percent on Friday.

Currently there are 1,935 people with COVID-19, down from 2,047 on Wednesday. There are 760,000 residents in San Joaquin County. The number of recoveries is 1,979.

The City of Tracy plans to still stage their aerial fireworks display but are discouraging people from leaving their homes to see the show. If they can’t see the show taking place from the Heinz Plant on the city’s east side, Tracy will livestream the fireworks on Facebook and on local access cable TV channels for Tracy residents.

Such an option would not have worked in Manteca.

Due to the construction of the 500-room Great Wolf Lodge state law required the “ceiling” that the aerial fireworks could be launched into from the municipal wastewater treatment plant being 100 feet lower than last year due to ember fallout from the exploding pyrotechnic shells.

That meant the only area you could see the fireworks would have been from the parking lots at Costco and Big League Dreams and city property that was being converted into a temporary dirt parking lot along Daniels Street just west of Airport Way. Very few, if any, households would be able to see the display.

In past years the area around the fireworks launch site from parking lots to streets were jammed with cars and people standing in close proximity for up to an hour.

The pandemic had already forced the cancellation of the Sunrise Kiwanis Fourth of July parade and the City of Manteca’s family-style Independence Day celebration at Big League Dreams.

 The Manteca Noon Kiwanis pancake breakfast — a city tradition for 40 years — is still a go but in a pandemic adjusted drive thru format. The breakfast is the service club’s biggest fundraiser of the year.

It will take place July 4 from 8 to 11 a.m.

Instead of the traditional sit-down breakfast, they will be offering the regular Pancake Breakfast of pancakes, ham, eggs, and coffee for curbside pickup at the Manteca Senior Center, located at 295 Cherry Lane. 

Tickets for the breakfast purchased before July 4 are $7 for adults and $4 for children under 10. Tickets purchased at the event are $8 for adults and $5 for children. To purchase tickets online before July 4, visit www.tinyurl.com/MantecaBreakfast

For more information, contact David at (209) 601-6860 or mantecakiwanis@gmail.com

 

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com