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Mountain City- Mountain City Mayor Kevin Parsons is working on a plan to open the swimming pool on a limited schedule this summer at least for now after a 4-1 vote at Tuesday night’s city council meeting which would prevent the pool from opening this year. The motion to not open the pool this summer was made based on the estimated costs that would be involved due to required repairs that would make the aging pool usable. Public works director Bob Eller stated that necessary state permits needed to operate the pool may be hard to obtain without additional funding that was not budgeted for this year due to the unknown deteriorating condition of the facility. Mayor Parsons along with Mr. Eller are re-evaluating those costs and the Mayor will make a decision by Friday of this week whether or not to give the go-ahead with making those repairs because costs to open the pool may be within the budget. It is anticipated that estimated costs would not be as drastic as thought by the board on Tuesday. In years past, the pool has not been a profitable venture for the town with last year’s numbers coming in at a loss of over $5600.00. The board will be hearing a proposal from the Mayor at this upcoming Tuesday evening’s budget work session on construction of an enclosed pool which would be open year round. Initially, the board wanted to use those funds which were earmarked for the operation of the pool this year to an escrow account for funding the proposed indoor pool project. For more information, call the Mayor’s office at 727-2940.

1st Annual Pumpkin Festival in Planning Stage

Mountain City Today

City Government News from Town Mayor Kevin Parsons

E-mail: mayor@townofmountaincity.com

I am thrilled to announce a great fall event sure to bring many people who don’t know about Mountain City a look at our beautiful town. I will begin with the dates of the first annual Pumpkin Festival so that you can clear your calendar to be here on October 17-19, for an event that I can describe in three words: Big, Huge and Orange! Hours will be announced later but we know the event will take place along Donnelly Street in front of city hall and the fire station, of which will be utilized for various indoor activities along with a place to gather in case of inclement weather. Other events will be scheduled at Ralph Stout Park.

Bring your own jack-o-lantern or carve one on site and see it shine alongside many others. There will be plenty of activities to keep you busy until late in the evening. While the following events are only preliminary at this point, I want to pick your brain for feedback on these or other ideas. . Your help with a number of logistics before, during and after the event would certainly be helpful. This one event could really put our town on the National event map.

How about participating in the costume parade, join the pumpkin eating or seed-spitting contests, and shop at the arts and crafts fair or enjoy delicious food and pumpkin related activities while enjoying free admission for most events and free parking. To kickoff the ceremonies on Friday night or Community Night, live music and free hayrides around city hall and town would be a nice touch. If you would like to organize an event, we will need experienced people to organize a pumpkin beauty contest, a great pumpkin festival king and queen contest and judges for the home and business decorating contest.

Saturday will likely feature a 5K Pumpkin Run around town, a children’s costume contest, biggest Pumpkin weigh-off, scariest pumpkin, funniest pumpkin, most creative pumpkin and yes, we need sponsors to help provide a huge cash prize for the overall winners. I would like to call on our local car club to organize a car show on Main Street Saturday Night and someone to organize a bake sale and auction or any other event you may feel worthy for the festival.

Sunday beginning at 1 PM a “Parade of Churches” would follow with a "Pickin' in the Park" featuring a community wide choir from our local churches performing throughout the afternoon to wrap up the event at 5 PM. I am very excited about this event which came about from the town hall meeting held a couple of weeks ago at city hall to solidify an event calendar for the entire year. That information will soon be available on the town’s website and through various media outlets in the area along with more on the Mountain City Pumpkin Festival.