The City of Platte City announced this week that it has canceled two of its largest indoor winter recreation programs due to the impact of the COVID virus.
The winter youth basketball and adult volleyball programs have been canceled effective immediately. The city will begin to issue full refunds the week of Nov. 17 with all refunds to be completed by Nov. 30.
Participants not receiving their refund by the end of November should contact City Hall at 816.858.3046 or finance@plattecity.org
The city makes this decision with a great deal of regret, stated D. J. Gehrt, city administrator in an email notice sent to participants, coaches and parents on Friday, Nov. 13.
The statement continued that “the city is cancelling this year’s youth basketball season and adult volleyball program due to the rapidly increasing incidence of COVID-19 transmission throughout the Kansas City metropolitan areas. This cancellation notice is a follow-up to the city’s earlier decision to delay the practice start date until Nov. 16th hoping that the transmission trend lines would begin to decrease. Unfortunately, the transmission trend lines have continued to move sharply upward over the past two weeks and are unlikely to abate during and after the Thanksgiving holiday.
“This cancellation decision was not made lightly and is being taken because of the increased level of difficulty for the city to meet its responsibility to provide a safe environment for program participants,” Gehrt said.
Gehrt added that the decision was based on the continued increase in transmissions, the expressed concerns of healthcare professionals regarding the safety of indoor sports, the age and level of effectiveness of the Civic Center air filtration system and the practical difficulties of disinfecting a very old gym between each game and practice.
A further concern was the anticipation that teams are likely to find it difficult to maintain enough available players and coaches in the event that the Thanksgiving holiday causes an even higher level of viral transmission, Gehrt indicated.