Salute to America festivities will move to a new location for the next three years because of ongoing renovations at the Capitol, organizers acknowledged Friday.
Each year, the festival attracts thousands of visitors to town during and leading up to Independence Day. A $28.69 million renovation of the Capitol began in late February that will cause the festival to be moved until contractors finish work on the building in 2020.
Cathy Brown, director of facilities management at Office of Administration, told more than a dozen people at a morning meeting held by the Jefferson City Area Chamber of Commerce that the festival will move through 2020 because the south lawn of the Capitol, where the event stage normally sits, will be occupied by construction equipment used in the renovation.
Complicating matters further, a separate project to restore monuments in a plaza on the north side of the Capitol where attendees normally view fireworks, will also run through the end of 2018.
"We're working closely with Salute to America to come up with a stage location," Brown said.
Angela Nale, Salute to America chairwoman, said Lohman's Landing just northeast of the Capitol is the preferred spot to hold the event. Organizers also considered holding it at the corner of Broadway and High Street.
But Nale said renovations at the Truman Building will prevent that site from being used. Jefferson City Police Department and Jefferson City Fire Department officials expressed concerns they would not be able to access the Capitol in the event of an emergency, Nale said.
"Lohman's Landing is ideal," she said. "It's a beautiful space. You're still downtown, and it's one of the few real historic spaces in Jefferson City.
As a last resort, the event could be held at the North Jefferson Recreation Area.
"We don't like that idea," Nale said. "We want to keep it downtown."
Diane Gillespie, Jefferson City Convention and Visitors Bureau executive director, said organizers want a place where attendees can still view fireworks on the Missouri River.
Nale said the Lohman's Landing spot still offers a perfect space to view fireworks.
Each year, about 50,000 people attend Salute to America festivities. Despite the renovations at the Capitol and the location change, Nale hopes because Independence Day falls on a Wednesday, more local people will stay home and go to the events than last year.
Overall, Brown said, the Capitol renovations could pay off big for the community. The state will spend almost $30 million in Jefferson City and employ 50-75 people working on the project at any given time. In all, 26 subcontractors will work on the project, many of them local companies.
"It is a major economic boom for this community," Brown said.