The village of Lexington seeks to repeat the success of the Bicentennial Birthday Bash held on July 31 for the upcoming Lexington Blueberry Festival, set to occur on August 15 – 18.
At Monday night’s council meeting, Mayor Parkison commended councilman, Tony Vero, for the effort he contributed to the bash, which rounded up approximately 200 children and their families to celebrate the village’s 200th birthday.
“Don’t forget all the village employees who were in the background doing something for the village like getting the bell from Bellville and making sure it got to the library on time,” stated councilman Brian White. Vero added, “It was a total team effort and true representation of village coming together. Katie and her staff and the rest of the committee did an excellent job.”
In his report, Chief of police, Brett Pauley, recognized the upcoming festival and stated that his staff has prepared a plan to handle all of the anticipated traffic for that weekend. NASCAR is holding an event at Mid-Ohio Racetrack simultaneously. “We think our plan will work well. That weekend will be challenging, but we are open to suggestions. There is a meeting next week with ODOT and we may tweak that plan,” he said.
In addition to the festival, the village will be hosting another event in conjunction with the bicentennial celebration on September 25. This event will take the shape of a pep rally/bonfire, and there is hope that State Representative Mark Romanchuk will make an appearance and read the village resolution.
One of the last items of business covered was the approval of a resolution authorizing the village to execute an agreement with Next Generation Films, Inc. for the St. Rt. 97/Industrial Park Drive improvement project.
Administrative Director, Aaron Wiegand stated that the village, Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT), and Next Generation Films are all contributing funds to complete this “much-needed project.” He commented, “The turn raises, elevation changes, and storm-water control have been a problem out there and this project will take care of those three concerns.”
He added, “Over 14 businesses on Industrial Drive will benefit from this work.”
ODOT funded up to 30 %, or up to $30,000. “Because it was such a quick-hitting project, we didn’t have the ability to put it in another budget cycle, so we had to use funds that we could pull from the things that were already available to us, which gave us $20,000 and left us $50,000 short. However, Next Generation said they’d fund it, and we’re very excited that they stepped up. All the businesses on that drive will benefit and Next Generation can continue its growth.”
Wiegand mentioned that the project should be completed this year. “Once they’re on the site, it shouldn’t take more than two weeks. We’re hopeful that it’ll be done before the end of the year.”