CALEDONIA — The Caledonia Days festival will look a little different this year, but the primary focus will remain the same, organizer Jackie Savage told the Caledonia Board of Aldermen during last night”s meeting.
This will be the eighth year for the event, which will take place Oct. 14-15 in downtown Caledonia.
It will be the first year to incorporate Friday night activities, a change Savage said will allow them to solicit funds from the Columbus Convention and Visitors Bureau. Savage and other volunteers will present a PowerPoint presentation to the CVB on July 18.
Savage told the aldermen that attendance has been good for the event”s preliminary planning meetings.
“These people want to do this, and that”s kind of inspiring,” Savage said. “Every year you want it to be better than the year before.”
She said there will be a fun run and lawnmower races. They are also trying to solicit a band.
Because of the extra administrative work involved with sending out letters to vendors, the board voted unanimously to approve additional pay for town clerk Judy Whitcomb for extra hours she incurs due to the festival.
In other news, the board voted unanimously to give $2,500 to the Caledonia Volunteer Fire Department so they can purchase new radios.
Firefighter Phillip Knight said each of the department”s firefighters normally carries a pager and a radio, but the pagers are difficult to repair when they break, so they would like to move away from using them.
Knight originally asked for $5,000 to purchase 11 radios, but Mayor George Gerhart balked over footing the entire cost since the department also serves the communities of Steens and Lone Oak.
“I don”t believe we should furnish them for all over,” Gerhart said, adding that the Lowndes County supervisors should be willing to provide some money.
“I”ve got pagers tearing up,” Knight said. “We”ll take what we can get.”
The board also took the following actions:
- Rescinded a previous vote to purchase an F-150 truck from the state, voting instead to purchase the truck from West Alabama Ford in Sulligent, Ala., for $18,861;
- Voted to allow Caledonia Head Marshal Ben Kilgore to attend the Mississippi Association of Chiefs of Police summer conference in Gulfport, June 19-23;
- Voted to send a letter to the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors requesting that they repave the walking track at Ola J. Pickett Park;
- Voted to pay Alderman Mike Savage mileage for supply trips to Tupelo.
The board will hold its next meeting June 14 at 6 p.m. at the Caledonia Town Hall.
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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