Officials postpone road race

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NAUGATUCK — The Ion Bank St. Patrick’s Day Road Race and Festival has been postponed.

The annual event, which is a fundraiser for the Naugatuck Education Foundation, was originally scheduled for Saturday. It has been rescheduled to April 1.

Other than the change in date, NEF President Andrew Bottinick said, everything about the race will be the same.

The race will still step off at 9 a.m. from The Station, 195 Water St.

Bottinick said the decision to move the race was made in conjunction with the Naugatuck Police Department and borough officials. While the main streets would likely be OK, he said, the race course travels through Linden Park and Breen Field, which still are covered with snow and ice.

“We just felt it wasn’t going to be safe enough for the runners,” Bottinick said.

The forecast for the weekend calls for more snow after a winter storm dropped more than a foot of snow on the area on Tuesday.

Bottinick said postponing the race likely means the event will lose some runners.

Each year amateur running groups book the events they are going to run it, Bottinick said. Many of the groups have already booked other runs for April 1, he said.

“We know we are going to lose some runners, but we are making accommodations for people,” Bottinick said.

Bottinick said race officials are allowing people who have registered already and can’t make it on April 1 to use the fee they paid for next year’s race.

Bottinick said he hopes warmer weather in the next two weeks will make up for the number of people who will be unable to run this year.

“We are hoping that by April 1 the weather will be better and we will make up the number of people we have lost,” Bottinick said. “We are anticipating just as good of a race if not better.”

For more information or to register online, visit register.fasttracktiming.com.