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Traditional 4th of July parade route planned

Times Observer file photo by Brian Ferry This year’s Fourth of July parade route is back to normal in the wake of PennDOT’s decision to delay construction of the roundabout at Pennsylvania Avenue and Market Street.

A delay in the construction schedule for the roundabout at Pennsylvania Avenue and Market Street will bring a traditional Fourth of July parade route back in play.

With construction expected for this summer, Fourth of July organizers had made the decision to use the same forming area on Lexington Avenue but bring the parade west on Lexington and then right on Pennsylvania Avenue heading east, resulting in a shorter parade route.

But, according to Mayor Dave Wortman, roundabout construction has been pushed to 2023.

The result?

“The traditional parade route is what we’re going with this year,” he said.

Parade Chairman Bill Thompson said changing the route back to the traditional course has been in discussions for a couple weeks.

“I was hoping it would be normal,” he said. “(It was) something I wanted, trying to make sure we were going at it in a safe manner. I didn’t want to be going through a construction zone.”

There’s just a handful of weeks between now and the parade but Thompson said it isn’t a burden from a planning perspective.

“It’s an easy switch,” he said, explaining that they just needed the city to select a route. “We’ll accommodate whatever we need to do.”

In addition to the route that stays on the east side, Thompson said a couple others were discussed. One utilized Pennsylvania Avenue, East Street and Second Avenue while the other ran the block — Conewango to Third Avenue, down Liberty and Pennsylvania Avenue to Laurel.

“To me they’re too long for one,” Thompson said.

He said the planning for this year’s parade is “coming along quite well.”

About 30 units are already entered in the parade, which Thompson said was “pretty much normal this time of the year.”

With roundabout construction now set for 2023, the alternate routes will be back in play with the early plan to go east.

And it’s likely that the traditional parade route can coexist with a roundabout.

“I don’t see us having a problem to get through there at all,” Thompson said.

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