NEW LONDON, Conn. — Sailfest will kick off Friday in New London after two years without the city’s biggest festival.
The three-day event attracts upwards of 300,000 people to it. Saturday’s fireworks are the main draw. The New London police union president Lt. Joshua Bergeson said they still don’t have the staff for the event.
In May, the union put out a letter calling for the event to be canceled or altered due to inadequate staffing levels. Lt. Bergeson said, since then, it hasn’t changed.
“We still stand by that statement and seeing the amount of mutual aid and the regional area departments who have offered up help, I still think those numbers are the same,” he said. “Our requests to scale the event down to even one day or two days has been met with not the kindest approach.”
The city relies on surrounding agencies to help out during the event. Lt. Bergeson said those agencies are also dealing with fewer staff members and have to dedicate their efforts to the influx of people seen in their communities. He said they have received “significantly less” mutual aid than anticipated.
Mayor Michael Passero disagrees. He said the aid is lined up with federal, state, and local partners. The Coast Guard, State Police, FBI, Homeland Security, and many more assist with the event.
“We’re feeling really, really good about it,” he said. “We’ve put on Sailfest for over 40 years and we know the drill.”
Mayor Passero said this will be the heaviest planned and safest event so far. Federal partners conduct threat assessments ahead of the event which the mayor says have found nothing. However, he said they prepare for it.
“We share the concerns but we’re prepared for the concerns,” Passero said.
Lt. Bergeson said they have to focus on normal day-to-day operations while patrolling the event and containing traffic. He anticipates traffic will likely be impacted the greatest because of staffing levels, especially after the fireworks.
“When the fireworks are over and the lights are running normal and there’s no one there to direct traffic, that’s going to create a large problem,” he said. “Just understand that the short staffing we do have and to be patient and, if traffic’s backed up, just be patient.”
Lt. Bergeson said the department has hired six new officers since May but they are still training and won’t be ready to go alone this weekend. Since initially voicing concerns in May, he said he has not had any conversations with the mayor and only one council member has reached out.
Mayor Passero said there is a chain of command that the administration communicates through.
Following the July 4 shooting in Highland Park, Illinois that killed at least seven and injured dozens more, the lieutenant says that renews concerns ahead of Sailfest and having the staff respond in an emergency.
“A lot of people don’t like to think about it, but we do think about that in our job and again it gets thrust into the forefront days before we hold an event,” he said.
Mayor Passero said it’s unfortunate they have to plan for it but they do. He said concerns and fears won’t cancel an event people have been waiting years for.
Sailfest starts Friday at 3 p.m. For more information on the event click here.
Tony Black is a multi-media journalist at FOX61 News. He can be reached at tblack@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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