DALTON, Ga. — Summer is almost upon us, and for the past two years, that has meant concerts at the Burr Performing Arts Park in downtown Dalton.

But Georgia is under a public health emergency order until June 13 because of the new coronavirus (COVID-19), and the organizers of that concert series will meet later this week to decide how to proceed, still not quite certain what guidelines the state will have in place as the summer begins.

“We have been meeting — the Downtown Dalton Development Authority (DDDA), the Community Foundation of Northwest Georgia, the Creative Arts Guild and the Dalton Convention & Visitors Bureau — by Zoom conference calls every two weeks,” said DDDA Interim Director George Woodward. “Right now, we expect that unless something comes up, we can start at the end of June or early July with our first concert. We have our next meeting on May 15, and we hope that we will be able to announce what the first concerts are then. The acts are already booked, but the contracts have clauses that say we can get out of them because of the coronavirus if that is still an issue.”

The park was made possible with a $1 million gift from philanthropist Jeanne Burr. The Community Foundation of Northwest Georgia is overseeing that bequest.

“This is going to be a challenge for everyone,” said Community Foundation President David Aft. “We are going to be looking at the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines, the governor’s guidelines for public events. We are anticipating that after June 13 there will be some changes in the guidelines, and we can have a careful reopening of the park after that.”

Aft said organizers hope to have a full summer concert series of 10 to 12 concerts, going a little bit later into the fall than they have in the past.

“People want to get back together,” Aft said. “They want to share concerts and music and celebrate our community. When our steering community meets, we will understand how important these events can be because we have seen what life is like without our meetings and celebrations.”

The DDDA permits all events in downtown Dalton, including Burr Park. It has a moratorium on all downtown permits until June 30 because of concerns about the coronavirus.

Woodward said any downtown Dalton events will have to follow guidelines set by state health officials to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. And Woodward said he expects there will be some changes.

“We will certainly recommend people observe social distancing,” Woodward said. “We’ll try to provide that in our vending area, provide barriers like they do now in stores. We are going to put in hand cleaning stations. We’ll probably be doing other things if recommended by public health officials.”

In its first two years of operation, the Burr Performing Arts Park quickly emerged as a community hub.

Events hosted at the park, especially the summer concert series, drew a total of more than 30,000 people to the park in that period, according to the DDDA.