Lexington Village Council recapped discussion on the success of the Blueberry Festival at Tuesday evening’s meeting, looking forward to having the same results with subsequent festivities.
Council President Bob Jarvis extended a thank you to the Blueberry Festival Committee, the Bicentennial Committee, the Lexington Police Department, as well as the parks department and all of the village employees for their help that weekend.
Next year’s festival is tentatively set for Aug. 14 – 17.
The question arose whether or not the village benefitted from having the festival during the same time as the NASCAR event at the Mid-Ohio Racetrack.
Councilman Chuck Pscholka stated, “I don’t think we benefitted much because of the way the event was scheduled. Qualifying and racing were all on the same day and people came into town in the morning and after the race they went home. They didn’t stay in local hotels or eat out at a lot of restaurants.”
“I know all the businesses in town got hit. Our profits were way down,” added Councilman Jeff Carter.
Councilman Brian White noted, “We did have a lot of positive feedback about the Sunday parade for the Blueberry Festival, so no matter what NASCAR does [next year] we may move the parade to Sunday. It seemed to be well-attended, stretched the festival out nicely, and was well-accepted.”
Events to come, the Halloween parade will be held on Sunday, Oct. 27 at 3 p.m., followed by trick-or-treat on Thursday, Oct. 31 from 5:30 – 7 p.m.
Lexington’s bicentennial celebration will conclude with the Light up Lex event, in which there will be appearances by State Representative Mark Romanchuk and potentially a state senator to read the village ordinance to commemorate Lexington’s 200th birthday.
In other news, Robert Heckathorn of 150 Sherwood Drive expressed concerned with signs advertising the Santa Fe Grill and Bar at 320 E Main St., stating that he counted a total of six signs. “When they’ve got all those signs in the right-of-way, that’s a no-go,” said Heckathorn.
Administrative Director Aaron Wiegand stated, “The Santa Fe Grill does indeed have temporary signs, although they were told about the one in the tree line today.”
Additionally, the Poggemyer Design Group created a plan for the St. Rt. 97/Industrial Park Drive improvement project. “It looks like it’s going to be really nice,” said Wiegand. “The plan has everything the village asked of the final program and their estimate still remained quite in budget.”
The bid date is set for Sept. 20, which may entail a special council meeting sometime early in the next week to approve the contract with the best and lowest bidder.
The project is estimated to last about two weeks.
“It seemed to be well-attended, stretched the festival out nicely, and was well-accepted,” Councilman Brian White said of the Blueberry Festival Parade.
