The following is a press release from the East Haven Mayor's Office.
The Committee has announced that this year there will not be a road race on Saturday morning, September 8, 2012.
According to the President, Robert Limoncelli, with the retirement of 20 year Race organizer, Ken Sittnick, the Fall Festival Committee had decided to take a long hard look at the road race over the last few months paying particular attention to resource allocation without sacrificing issues relative to safety.
The Road Race requires a significant number of volunteers and a large police presence to ensure the safety of the runners during the actual event.
The Committee has been reviewing changes to the route to cut down on the cross streets and main thoroughfare on the race route.
According to Mr. Limoncelli, with the continued poor economic climate affecting our donors the last few years, the route change became necessary to reduce the police costs of the race and lower the expense of other town resources.
There simply was not enough time to design a new race course and have it certified prior to the commencement of this year’s activities.
Prudence dictated that the Festival simply forego this year’s race to ensure that any new race course is properly designed and certified to maximize the safety to the runners and the volunteers.
The Festival thanks Ken and Judy Sittnick for all their tireless efforts since the Race’s inception.
It would also extend its thanks to all who volunteered with the previous races and hope to have your support in the future.
Any volunteers from the race are welcome to contact the Festival Committee or the Mayor’s office to volunteer in another capacity at the Festival.
Although there will not be a road race, l begins at 11:00 a.m. and will provide more than enough entertainment for the Festival attendees for this year’s Festival.
