2021 Summer and Fall Events Canceled

On August 16th, representatives from the City of Coburg, Coburg Fire District, Coburg Public Works, Coburg Police, and the Coburg Chamber gathered for a very tough discussion regarding upcoming events in Coburg.  At the heart of the discussion was the understanding of how important these events are to the community.  However, given the continued surge of Covid-19 cases in Lane County over the last couple of weeks, we must put the health and safety of the Coburg citizens first.

Events in Coburg draw visitors from our local area, the state, and from out of state.   This puts our community at risk for spread of the virus.   There are two very important factors that we need to take into consideration when making this decision including:

The Coburg age demographic leans toward a more vulnerable population
Our emergency responders are small teams with little depth.   This means that if one or more is exposed to the virus, it could mean the loss of a full department if all are quarantined.   This limits their ability to respond to a public emergency.  As these teams support events in Coburg in a huge way, this is a significant risk of exposure to our service providers that could seriously impact the provision of critical services in our community as a whole.

More than anything, we want to see our community return to normal.  Working together to slow the spread of the virus is the best way to get there.

With great sadness, the decision has been made to cancel all events for the summer and fall in Coburg.   This includes Concerts in the Park, the Farmers Market, the Antique Fair and other events which require a permit be issued by the City and require City, Fire, Police, and Public Works support services. This decision was not made lightly, but was made with an emphasis on the importance of community health as a whole.

We hope that our citizens will be supportive of this very tough decision.

Thank you,

Ray Smith, Mayor

Anne Heath, City Administrator

Sharyl Abbaspour, Chamber President

Chad Minter, Fire Chief

Larry Larson, Police Chief

Brian Harmon, Public Works Director