In their latest session, the city council in Shelby heard a change to the city’s annual Bicycle Days 2014, recovery efforts from a November 1 storm and “Polar Express” event through Shelby.
“Bicycle Days will be going through a change because we are trying to bring bicycles back to Bicycle Days. In the past few years Bicycle Days has been a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday event but next year they are looking at Thursday, Friday, and Saturday event. Again, with greater emphasis on bicycles,” said Gates.
“Richland Moves is an organization that has a bicycle emphasis. They will be holding a meeting at Marvin Memorial Library on Tuesday, November 12 at 6 p.m. They will be looking at bicycle route maps,” said Gates.
‘A Night of Christmas Magic’ will take place in Downtown Shelby on November 24. “We have expanded the festival that was happening and that was MedCentral Shelby Hospital Guild’s Festival of Lights, which begins at 4 p.m. They have planted a memory tree. So, this means that instead of it just being lights, people will be able to put an ornament on the tree in memory of a loved one. Also, the mayor will be flipping the switch for Central Park lights,” said Community and Economic Development Coordinator Christina Thompson.
“The big news is that Ashland Railway has agreed to bring a train into Shelby with Santa on board. We will be doing a “Polar Express” theme and on the side of the boxcar it will say “Believe” and we will be handing out tickets to children. We will also have the train conductor read the “Polar Express” story. Santa and Mrs. Claus will then be downtown. There will be a grand unveiling of the downtown store front windows. The downtown merchants will decorate their windows. We will also have a Christmas toy drive and winter outerwear donations from 4-8 p.m. at Shelby Monuments to benefit the Shelby Helpline Ministries,” said Thompson.
Mayor Marilyn John thanked the utility department of Shelby. “I want to thank the utility department, the police department, and the other departments that responded to the storm that came through on Friday, November 1. The utility crews were out in the middle of the night and we were fortunate the power was back up as quickly as it was. In some parts of town we were down for eight or nine hours. Considering it was straight line winds of about 80 to 90 miles per hour, it could have been much worse. We are fortunate to live in a community that has their own line department because there are other communities when an event like this happens where they will go days without power,” said John.
Director of Finance Robert Lafferty reported the cost of damage that was done to the city from the storm. “We had somewhere over $10,000 worth of damage, but the good news is that it will be covered by insurance,” said Lafferty.
