College Township levied more than $10,000 in fines related to weekend wrestling tournament
More than $10,000 in fines were handed out to the organizers and the facility that welcomed more than 2,700 people to Happy Valley for a three-day wrestling tournament, College Township said Monday.
The township also lambasted Gov. Tom Wolf’s office and the state Health Department in a press release for placing the community’s health in “jeopardy” and their perceived inaction to stop the Olympic Club Duals at C3 Sports.
“College Township strongly condemns this event and is deeply disappointed in C3 Sports, the event organizers, the governor’s and (state) secretary of health’s office for risking the health and welfare of the participants, the residents of College Township, the Centre Region and Centre County by taking no action to cancel, postpone or shut down this event,” council Chairman Anthony Fragola wrote in a statement.
The more than 30 citations for fire, zoning and health code violations came after township officials unsuccessfully scrambled Friday to shut down the event, which they only became aware of Thursday.
The township warned tournament organizers and C3 Sports the event would violate state orders and municipal law, but those warnings had no effect.
The township believed its only legal option was to issue citations, an approach that township Manager Adam Brumbaugh acknowledged Friday was reactive rather than proactive.
The late response cleared a path for wrestlers from more than 12 states, their families, coaches, security, administrators, referees and Division I coaches to permeate the county with the highest COVID-19 incidence rate in Pennsylvania by far.
College Township squarely blamed Wolf and Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine’s office for their “failure” to seek an injunction.
“Unfortunately, prior discussions and the listed fines are the full extent of College Township’s power to influence such events,” Fragola wrote. “Doubly unfortunate is the fact that when College Township requested aid to enforce the state restrictions, the governor’s office — where the power lies to forcibly prevent such an event — declined to assist.”
Wolf spokesperson Lyndsay Kensinger pushed back in a written statement, saying requests for injunctions do not need to come from the governor or the state attorney general.
Municipalities, including College Township, can request an injunction, she wrote.
Neither tournament organizer Curt Krazer nor Christ Community Church — which received between $150,000 and $350,000 from the federal government’s coronavirus relief bill — responded Monday to requests for comment.
Krazer pledged Friday that attendees would follow “every protocol,” including mask and physical distancing requirements. That didn’t happen, Fragola wrote.
“Participants’ posts on a variety of social media outlets made it amply clear that C3 Sports and event organizers — despite statements prior that they had a strict COVID protection plan — took little or no action to enforce either masking requirements or social distancing requirements,” Fragola wrote. “Further, as the issued citations testify, they failed to take the overall safety of the participants into account.”
College Township plans to meet Monday and discuss amendments to its temporary COVID-19 ordinance to “better address” similar events, Fragola wrote.
This story was originally published September 14, 2020 at 3:10 PM.