Bad weather has forced the cancellation of Dover’s St. Patrick’s Day parade.
Downtown Dover Partnership Executive Director Bill Neaton made the decision to call off the much anticipated event shortly after 10:15 a.m. March 12.
“Unfortunately, we just can’t make it work,” he said.
Earlier in the morning, Neaton had received forecasts indicating high winds and possibly up to five inches of rainl could fall locally during the parade, which was to kick off at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 13. He decided to at least postpone the event until checking with the Dover Police Department to see if rescheduling for Wednesday, March 17 would be feasible.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t, he said.
“The problem with rescheduling was that it would be a major disruption of east-west and north-south traffic,” he said. “It would have had a major impact on travel in Dover. I have to concur with the police on that.”
To Neaton’s knowledge, this is the first time in the parade’s 17-year history the event has been cancelled.
“There’s been a huge amount of work done on the parade by my office and by many volunteers to put this together,” he said. “We’re all very disappointed.”
Neaton added the parade committee will build in bad weather dates when working up the schedule for 2011.
