Just when you were warming up to the idea of jumping into ice cold water to celebrate, I don't know, something, you can kiss it good bye.
Pottstown Borough Manager Justin Keller told council Wednesday night that the Polar Bear Plunge, whereby otherwise sane people leap into the ice waters of the Schuylkill River, has been cancelled.
Again.
Usually, this perfectly normal activity takes place on New Year's Day but thats to COVID-19, it was postponed.
The Parks and Recreation Department had thought to give it a try this coming Saturday, Feb. 13.
As you no doubt read here in this space, with understandable confusion, on Jan. 29: "The last time we did this in February, we only had 40-to-50 swimmers and few spectators, so we anticipate we can work safely within the guidelines."
That was according to Parks and Recreation Director Michael Lenhart.
But by the Feb. 3 meeting, borough officials were having second thoughts.
It turns out, they realized idea of wearing a mask in the water might make it hard for some people to breathe, through a wet mask.
And the idea of allowing people, again, perfectly sane, to jump into icy cold water without masks didn't sound like the best way to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
In addition to being unsafe -- "we just didn't feel confident enough to allow that to go forward," Keller said, it could also create a liability problem.
Swimming in winter AND lawyers? No thanks says the borough.
"We may try to do something in the summer," said Keller although I don't think you could exactly call it a "Polar Berar Swim" if you did it in summer. But hey, that's just me and I'm no lawyer.
Other stuff happened at the council meeting too. Click here to read all about it through my breathless Tweets.
It's the next best thing to being there, maybe better.
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