Sun filed photo by James Mann | jmann@winchestersun.com
The Winchester-Clark County Parks and Recreation Board made a move Monday at its meeting that’s sure to bring smiles to the faces of country music fans across the area.
The board unanimously approved a request from Clark County Attorney Brian Thomas and organizers of the John Michael Montgomery Country Fest to rent Lykins Park from Sept. 24 through Sept. 30 to host its second country music festival.
The Country Fest will be Friday Sept. 28, and Sat. Sept. 29, but as it did last year, the group reserved the park the entire week so it could begin preparations beforehand, Thomas said.
“If you recall,” Thomas said, “we leased it for seven days last year. We started setting up barricades and fencing on Wednesday, then on Thursday the stage went up and we had the event Friday and Saturday, then on Sunday, we cleaned up.”
Organizers have already begun working on this year’s festival, and have been contacted by numerous performers interested in being a part of the event, Thomas said, but the group needed to secure the park before going any farther.
The board approved renting the park to Thomas’s group on the specified dates with financial arrangements to be finalized at a later meeting with Thomas and the event organizers.
Thomas told the board he felt like last year’s financial arrangement worked well for both parties.
“We think similar arrangements for everything as last year would be fine,” Thomas said. “I think it was beneficial to everybody last year.”
Thomas said organizers “learned a lot from last year’s event,” and he expected this year’s event to be even better than the last.
In other business the board:
— Heard a report from Tim Smith, chairman of the July 4th Celebration Committee. Smith said the group had its first meeting Monday and set Tuesday, July 3, as the date for the celebration. Because Tuesday is a work day, Smith said, organizers are looking at “condensing the event a little,” and beginning the traditional feeding of veterans at 6:30 p.m., with the other events beginning at 7 p.m. The committee will meet again in two weeks to begin determining the costs for the celebration, then starting fundraising for the event.
— approved advertising for seasonal maintenance workers for the parks department. The board approved advertising for two temporary full-time employees and two temporary call-when-needed employees. Individuals who worked in the maintenance department last year, will still have to reapply again this year.
— approved advertising for a Day Camp director and camp counselors for the summer day camp program. Board Chairman Charlie Eury said Sarah Evans, who served as director last year has taken a job elsewhere and will not return.
— appointed board members B.J. Wasson, Bob Jackson, Dwayne Gay and Eury to serve on the Operating and Budget Committee. The board must submit its annual budget to Winchester City Commission and the Clark County Fiscal Court by March 19.
— approved the emergency hire of Todd Plummer to work the front desk at the Health and Wellness Center.
— approved soliciting bids for port-a-potty rentals for county parks for the upcoming season. The board traditionally solicits bids from three vendors, Eury said.
— heard a program report from Director Jeff Lewis. Some popular favorites are returning in March such as zumba, which begins March 15, ballroom dancing for teens, March 13, yoga, March 2, belly dancing, March 7 at the library, and swim lessons, Feb. 21-March 15. Several classes are continuing, such as water aerobics and water arthritis classes, as well as scuba. Lewis said the department is also looking into beginning a kayaking class as well as parent-child swim lessons, which several parents have expressed an interest in.
— heard maintenance report from maintenance director Darrell Pryor.
The next meeting of the Parks board is scheduled for March 12.
Contact Bob Flynn at bflynn@winchestersun.com.
