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Centennial Picnic, Car Show Relocated By Road Work
picnic
Traffic and parking on this stretch of Santa Fe Street in front of the Riverbank Community Gymnasium and the city’s Community Center and park will be non-existent for the next couple of months, as the section will be under construction. The road closure, with detours, will start at Fifth Street and stretch to Seventh Street, so parking and traffic in front of Cardozo Middle School and the Riverbank Teen Center will be blocked, as well. Ric McGinnis/The News

A downtown road closure is forcing the relocation of the upcoming Centennial Picnic and Car Show, slated for Saturday, June 25 in Riverbank.

The event, part of the continuing Centennial Celebration of the City of Riverbank, was originally scheduled to be held at the Riverbank Community Center Park, on Santa Fe Street, across from Cardozo Middle School. The committee had planned to utilize the streets of Santa Fe and Seventh to display all the cars, and hold the picnic, beer garden and band concert in the park area.

That plan was dashed this past week, when an expansive public works project was scheduled for the same stretch of Santa Fe.

That street will now be closed, beginning June 15, and continuing 24 hours a day, until Aug. 3, according to Public Works Director Mike Riddell. He said the project is planned to be completed before school starts again in the fall.

City officials, when contacted, disclosed that the committee was forced by the road work to relocate the car show and picnic. After consideration of other, larger parks in town, the area around Plaza del Rio Park was chosen, according to committee member Gaby Hernandez.

She said the cars will be displayed on both sides of Third Street, between Topeka and Stanislaus streets, with the picnic area in the park and the band performing from the stage there.

Hernandez said the city was planning on utilizing portable signage in the construction area to notify those potential picnickers who hadn’t gotten the message of the relocation. And fortunately, she said, it’s only moving a couple of blocks to the west, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to spot.