River Festival continues without shrimp boil dinner

(Full disclosure -- David Martin is a member of the Green River Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors)

The shrimp boil won’t be taking place at River Festival this year as the event was canceled due to complications from the coronavirus pandemic.

The marathon, Flaunt Your Fish and duck race events will continue as scheduled.

The Green River Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors discussed the long-running event during a special video conference meeting Thursday.

The chamber initially continued planning to host the dinner as expectations that limits to outdoor public gathers would have eased in time for the event. However, after Gov. Mark Gordon announced current guidelines limiting indoor gatherings to 50 and outdoor gatherings to 250 would remain unchanged until July 15 and running up against a deadline to order food and the trailer for the event, the board decided to cancel the dinner and associated outdoor events.

According to Lisa Herrera, CEO of the chamber, she was receiving feedback from area employers asking the chamber to cancel the dinner.

She said some employers have run into staffing problems due to quarantine orders placed on employees who had contact with people infected by COVID-19. As businesses have reopened, the number of infections have continually risen in Sweetwater County, with a total of 97 cases reported since the start of the pandemic and 53 recoveries.

There are nine unconfirmed, probable cases active in the county as of Monday as well. Those under quarantine have had close contact with people infected by the disease and cannot break the quarantine until it expires.

Herrera said representatives of some area trona mines expressed concern with a plan to continue the dinner because of the chance infected attendees would cause further infections and quarantines following the event.

The shrimp boil typically attracts more than 1,000 to Expedition Island each year, including U.S. Sen. John Barrasso.