NEW YORK (AP) - New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio skipped the Staten Island Zoo’s annual Groundhog Day ceremony - several years after dropping a groundhog that later died.
De Blasio - responding to a question Friday on WNYC - said that there are “fine elected officials” who are “much more adept at handling groundhogs” than he is.
Staten Island Chuck - a three-decade veteran of weather predictions - indicates there’ll be an early spring.
The last time de Blasio held a ceremonial groundhog - a stand-in named Charlotte - was in 2014.
Charlotte died several days after being dropped; the zoo says it was unlikely that the death was related.
In 2009, Chuck bit then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Says de Blasio: “I’ve done my time.”
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