Roosevelt Island Facilities Including Sportspark And Cultural Center Closed Due To Coronavirus Health Emergency Reports RIOC - Also, RIDA Cancels St Patrick's Day Party And MST&DA Suspends Classes For Next 2 Weeks

The Twitterverse asked this morning:

Sports park closed? Pool? Not returning my calls and no email sent out.

— LICRYNO (@LicRyno) March 15, 2020

The Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) announced this evening:

Please be advised that all RIOC permits are cancelled and all RIOC permitted facilities are closed until further notice.

The RIOC facilities closings include the Sportspark and Cultural Center.

The Coronavirus health emergency has also cancelled the Roosevelt Island Disabled Association (RIDA) St Patrick's Day Party:

As the well-being of our members has always been our top priority, we would never want to put anyone at risk. In lieu of the chaos and uncertainty in NYC at this time, we at RIDA feel it necessary to cancel our St. Patrick's Day event on Monday evening, March 16th. With this being said, we would still like those who had originally signed up for the event, to come down to the senior center at 5:30pm on Monday evening in order to pick up, take home and enjoy a traditional St. Patrick’s day meal.

And from the Main Street Theatre & Dance Alliance:

Thank you for your patience as we navigate our programming through the Covid-19 pandemic. We appreciate how conscientious everyone has been when attending class and rehearsal with washing hands, wiping surfaces and limiting physical contact. Our actions will make a difference! The health and well-being of our students and staff, and how it impacts each family and beyond into our community, is of utmost importance to us. We have arrived at the difficult but necessary decision to suspend in-person classes starting Sunday, March 15th through Sunday, March 29th. Depending on circumstances, in person classes will resume on Monday, March 30th.. We are one of several Roosevelt Island organizations who are making this decision and feel that it is the right one, especially to protect those who are at high risk.

INSTRUCTION WILL CONTINUE ONLINE While we are taking this 2 week break from in person classes, our incredible staff will provide instructional videos which will be compiled on our MST&DA Youtube channel starting this week. We will email these Youtube Playlists directly. These will not be shared with the public, but made especially for you, our valued students. This includes children and adult dance and theatre classes, adult fitness and all theatre production rehearsals. Instructors also may be able to SKYPE, ZOOM or FACETIME if you request this. While this is not ideal, we can try to make the best of it and have fun practicing your dances, songs and scenes at home. Please consider posting a comment each time you watch and practice for your dance concert, musical or play! You can work with the videos anytime of the day, perhaps at the same time you would have class, to keep some normalcy to your schedule. Get the whole family (mom, dad, children, grandchildren, siblings, grandparents) involved as an audience or act like another student in class. Even post a video of your own! We hope this will bring joy and good health in this difficult time.

UPCOMING EVENTS Since the nature of performing arts involves the gathering of people, we need to make some changes in our spring performance schedule. The plans will evolve as the days progress. So far we have decided on the following:

• Adult Cabaret has been rescheduled to May 2 & 3
• The Red Carpet Cabaret that was schedule for April 25th has been postponed. Date TBD
• All other events remain on the calendar and we are considering what types of adjustments we may need to make.

Please know that you are part of the MST&DA family and we care about each and every one of you. Please keep in touch with us, let us know if you have any questions or concerns, and reach out if you need anything. We will do everything in our power to keep everyone healthy and positive, to overcome this challenge, and to keep you dancing, singing and acting!

Sincerely,

Kristi, Kimbirdlee and the MST&DA Team

UPDATE 9:40 PM - From RIOC:

Per the directive from Governor Andrew Cuomo, all non-essential RIOC personnel will be working remotely until further notice.

The Public Safety Department will continue to be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They can be reached by calling 212-832-4545.

Please note the following:

• The Red Bus and the Tram will operate on regularly scheduled service until further notice.
• All public events are cancelled until further notice.
• All permits are cancelled until further notice. Permit holders can receive credit on later permits or ask for a refund.
• Sportspark, the Roosevelt Island Youth Center, the Cultural Center, Good Shepherd Community Center are closed until further notice.
• For updates on NYC Ferry, please visit their website: https://www.ferry.nyc
• For updates on the F Train or the Q102 bus, please visit: https://new.mta.info

As per the NYS Department of Health, all residents are encouraged to stay home during this pandemic. This is a fluid situation and likely to change often. Please check rioc.ny.gov for further updates on service changes. All residents are encouraged to sign up for RIOC Advisories for the latest information: https://member.everbridge.net/453003085611676/login

For the latest information on the Coronavirus (COVID-19), please visit: https://health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/coronavirus/