Popular summer event gets go-ahead after plan review
One of Highlands’ most popular summer events will be back with a new format for 2021.
Following a hiatus in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Friends of Kelsey-Hutchinson Founders Park Shrimp Boil was given the green light by the Highlands board of commissioners. The event is scheduled for 4:30 – 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 19.
Friends member Hank Ross presented the organization’s plan for making the shrimp boil a successful event while also mitigating any risks related to the ongoing pandemic.
“What we have come up with is a way to do a drive-thru event, so there won’t be large groups of people congregating and eating together,” Ross said. “With the help of the Highlands Police Department we put together a plan to keep traffic flowing around the park.”
Ross noted that attendees will enter the park area near the intersection of 4th Street and Oak Street. Once their tickets are taken, they will be directed to one of two lanes of traffic, one proceeding left down the alley that connects to Pine Street and the other remaining on Oak Street.
“Meals will be handed out at two sites and traffic will be able to exit from Pine Street back on to 4th Street and from Oak Street on to 5th Street,” Ross said. “Like in years past, we realize that the Chamber of Commerce has its summer concert series going on each Saturday night in the park and we want to keep the traffic impact on that event to a minimum if possible.”
Ross added that in the past most ticket holders have come at the beginning of the event, which could create a backup in the drive-thru format. With that in mind, organizers are going to give ticket purchasers a time window to pick up their meals.
“This is really our only fundraiser for the year and we traditionally draw between 200-300 people,” Ross said. “We only sell tickets in advance, and because we keep the price at a relatively affordable rate we get a lot of buyers.”
Ross thanked Highlands Police Captain Mike Jolly for his help in organizing the traffic pattern and the town board for its willingness to be flexible in allowing the shrimp boil to move forward in 2021.
Ross noted that ticket prices have not yet been established due to the format change, but he hoped the price and ticket availability information would be released to the public in the near future.
The board gave consensus for the shrimp boil to proceed as Ross presented.