West Caldwell Calls off July 4 Fireworks; Pool Updates to Come – TAPinto.net

WEST CALDWELL, NJ — Although New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy gave the green light earlier this week to fireworks displays on July 4 weekend, West Caldwell announced Wednesday that it would be canceling its scheduled Independence Day fireworks.

The township posted news of the cancellation on its municipal website. The restrictions on large outdoor gatherings in New Jersey are scheduled to expand from 250 to 500 on July 6. West Caldwell may reschedule fireworks for Labor Day weekend or sometime later in the fall.

A decision on the status of the municipal pools in West Caldwell is expected by the end of the month. In an update posted on the township website over the weekend, Mayor Joe Tempesta said, “Pool memberships are currently very low. If we do not have a significant increase in the number of memberships in the next two weeks, we may have to make the decision to only open one pool for the season. Our decision will be based on the number of memberships received by our opening date.”

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Residents may register by visiting the township’s website at www.westcaldwell.comand and then clicking on the Recreation tab at the top of the page. For additional information, contact the Recreation Department at (973) 226-3621.

Summer playground programs were an earlier casualty of the pandemic and subsequent shelter-in-place mandates earlier this spring.

“The amount of regulations for both the staff and the children attending make it difficult to insure the safety of all participants,” Tempesta said.

As of Wednesday, there had been 18,377 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Essex County since the start of the pandemic in March. According to data from the county, there had been 261 cases in West Caldwell, although the township had reported numbers much lower than that in the general population over the weekend.

In New Jersey, for the fourth consecutive day there were fewer than 500 new coronavirus cases statewide according to the New Jersey Department of Health. Hospitalizations related to COVID-19 also dropped below 1,300 for the first time in more than three months as of Monday night.