Palatine postponing run/walk events until COVID-19 restrictions are lifted

Palatine will allow neighborhood run/walk events only when COVID-19 restrictions are lifted — by September, officials hope — but will OK block parties when the state enters the next phase of the Restore Illinois plan.

Palatine Village Manager Reid Ottesen said those were the village staff's recommendations, and the village council agreed with the parameters after a discussion Monday night.

Under the current Phase 4, run/walk events require limited gatherings of 50 or fewer people using staggered start times every 30 minutes. In the next “bridge,” or 4.5 phase, gatherings would be limited to 100 participants, also with staggered start times.

With such limits, walkers and runners could tie up neighborhood streets potentially for hours, Ottesen said.

“Some of these have 200, 400 or 500 people — you could be having 2½ hours, 3½ hours or 4 hours of starts going,” he said.

A longer event also would mean more overtime — charged to the organizers — for police officers who provide traffic control and assistance, he said.

“The overwhelming majority” of race organizers already have agreed to delay their events to September, October and November, Ottesen told the council.

Organizers of the Uncle Sam 5K on Fourth on July decided to cancel this year's event. A couple of others still hoped to have them this summer, Ottesen said, including the Salt Creek Rural Park District, which organizes the Twin Lakes Triathlon,

The park district's website says the triathlon, initially set for June 27, was canceled.

Kelly Sisco, Salt Creek's superintendent of recreation, declined to comment Tuesday.

At the council meeting Monday, Councilman Brad Helms asked whether the problem could be solved by having run/walk events off village streets, such as at Harper College or on a high school track. Ottesen said the village suggested that to organizers who are insistent on having their events in summer.

Among those deciding to postpone its 5K run/walk is Palatine's Andrew Strong Foundation, which will have it Sept. 26. Holding the event in June, as initially planned, at Margreth Riemer Reservoir would have entailed a lot of complicated planning, said foundation volunteer Julie Johnson. “We're hoping that by September some of the restrictions will be lessened and there won't be as many details to be worked out,” she said.

The foundation is named after 16-year-old Andrew Marton of Palatine, who died after a dirt bike accident in April 2020. It has two other upcoming events: a bags tournament June 12 and a golf outing Aug. 20.

As for block parties, the village will not bring police and fire department vehicles to those events this summer, because they attract big crowds, Ottesen said. But the village “will still be bringing in the barricades, wishing people well,” he said.