While no one in Brookfield, Riverside or North Riverside will be celebrating a traditional festive Fourth of July with parades and community picnics, there are going to be fireworks in North Riverside at dusk on July 4.
As in recent years, the fireworks display will be coming courtesy of the Riverside Golf Club, which in the past has invited North Riverside residents onto its grounds to enjoy the show.
Mayor Hubert Hermanek Jr. told the Landmark that the golf club invited residents again this year, but said that due to the COVID-19 pandemic the village would not sanction any large gathering in 2020.
However, realizing that people are going to be coming to the area to watch the golf club’s fireworks display despite not being let into the club itself, the village will be closing off Desplaines Avenue from about 8:30 p.m. until the fireworks conclude. The show is supposed to launch at about 9:10 p.m., Hermanek said.
A roughly block-long stretch of Desplaines Avenue will be cordoned off between the entrance to the Riverside Golf Club and the North Riverside Public Library, said Hermanek, and the village will be placing signs reminding people to wear face coverings and maintain physical distance between themselves and others.
People will be allowed to park in the library and municipal parking lots along Desplaines Avenue and watch from the green spaces, parking lot, sidewalks and street within the cordoned off area.
“They can go wherever, but we’re asking please to exercise social distancing,” said Hermanek, who acknowledged that it would be hard to enforce. “But, I understand people are going to want to see fireworks, we’re going to try and keep it as safe as we can.”
