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GREENSBORO — Saturday’s steady trickle of snow and ice shut down the celebratory dinner for the opening of the International Civil Rights Center & Museum. Instead, the sold-out gala will take place in two weeks.

“Just look out the window,” Melvin “Skip” Alston, president of the museum’s board of directors, said early Saturday morning as the overnight accumulation continued. “The safety of our attendees is our biggest concern. We had over 2,200 people who have paid money to celebrate with us, and we are concerned about them getting there safely.”

Main speaker and civil rights icon Julian Bond had yet to board an airplane to Greensboro, Alston said.

The gala has been rescheduled for 7-9 p.m. Feb. 13 at Koury Convention Center.

The ecumenical service scheduled for Sunday at the Greensboro Coliseum has been canceled, according to Amelia Parker, the museum’s executive director.

Monday’s ribbon-cutting for the $23-million museum is still on schedule. The museum commemorates Feb. 1, 1960, the day four N.C. A&T students sat down at the segregated Woolworth lunch counter and helped to rid the South of Jim Crow laws that allowed for “colored” and “white” water fountains.

“We are not going to miss out on that historical moment,” Alston said. “It was our intent to open the museum on that historical day.”

The three remaining members of the Greensboro Four — Joseph McNeil, Jibreel Khazan and Franklin McCain — are already in town for the event, Alston said. David Richmond died in 1990.

“I am disappointed in a way because I was hoping to see people (at the gala) I haven’t seen in 50 years, but it will happen,” Khazan said.

Instead, he planned to gather Saturday night in his hotel with family, including his son from Atlanta, a sister from Greensboro and another from New York.

“I’m still looking forward to Monday,” Khazan said.

The city  brought in 45 city workers Saturday afternoon to begin clearing downtown sidewalks near the new museum so it will be ready for the ribbon-cutting Monday, said Mike Mabe, Greensboro’s manager of street and stormwater maintenance.

Arriving at 4 p.m., the extra workers began clearing snow completely from sidewalks in the first two blocks of South Elm Street and both blocks of February One Place. Sidewalks also will be cleared on parts of Greene and Davie streets.

Using shovels, front-end loaders, Bobcat mini-bulldozers and other mechanical equipment, city employees scraped up the snow and loaded it on dump trucks for disposal on a lot at the city’s Patton Avenue service center, Mabe said.

Mabe said that work must be finished by Sunday afternoon. That’s when museum volunteers begin setting up for the ribbon-cutting.

The snow-removal plan was authorized by the City Council, but it’s hard to predict the cost. Officials don’t yet know how many tons of salt will be used, how much snow will fall and how many hours of work will be required, city spokesman Jim Collins said.

The museum itself has added about 25 volunteers to the original 50 assisting at the Monday event. Their role will include extra duties such as toweling seats dry before the  8 a.m. ceremony.

Contact Nancy McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nancy.mclaughlin@news-record.com

Contact Taft Wireback at 373-7100 or taft.wireback@news-record.com