Folk Festival to Use Entire Park for 40th Anniversary

by Nathan Lasher

The Kittanning Borough Council gave the Board of the Fort Armstrong Folk Festival the go-ahead to use both ends of the Riverfront Park, providing certain safety issues are resolved, for the 2011 Folk Festival during a public meeting held yesterday evening.

During her Parks and Recreation Report, Council Member Lisa McCanna read a letter from the Fort Armstrong Folk Festival Board which requested the Council’s approval to use the Riverfront Park for the next five years and to allow artisans and food vendors to set up on the southern end of the park. McCanna expressed that the Board wised to use the southern end of the park due to a Civil War Traveling Museum that will be in that area for the festival.

“Normally, we talk ahead of time, but we don’t do the approval for five years,” said McCanna after reading the letter aloud.

Council Member Richard Reedy agreed. “I think we ought to keep it one year at a time the way it was,” he said. “I don’t think you’ll have any problem getting it approved, but there might be some changes.”

Members of the festival Board who were in attendance voiced that the request of the space for the next five years had only been made because they believed that was the way it had been done in the past.

At that point, McCanna asked if anyone had any problem with the artisans and food vendors using the south end of the park.

Kittanning Police Chief Ed Cassesse was the first to address the issue.

“Where are we going to put the traffic?” asked Cassesse. “If you use the south end of the park, and if you are going to close the street, where are you going to put the traffic? If you’re not going to close it it’s one thing, but if you’re asking to close the street we can’t do that.”

After the Council discussed whether or not South Water Street would need to be closed or whether the request had been made, Council Member Chris Schiano attempted to clarify the situation.

“I think maybe what Eddy is saying is if you don’t close the street off and you do expand, and I’m all for the Folk Festival, expand it south of the bridge you’re going to have enough people milling around that you’re essentially going to stop it,” said Schiano.

“If there was a way to rope that off, temporary fencing or something in that area, to make them use the walkway underneath the bridge we’d be fine, but I just don’t see how you can keep traffic if that would…I mean the safety has got to be a concern because everybody sitting here knows that the traffic backs clean up to the mall when the festival is in town, and if you block off South Water Street you’re going to have it clean out through West Kittanning,” added Cassesse.

At that point, Council President Gerald Shuster suggested that the Recreation Committee, Police Chief, and Mayor meet with the Folk Festival Committee to develop a method for enhanced safety of people if the southern end of the park is to be used. “I suspect that it’s not going to be the only year, if it’s successful, using the southern end,” said Shuster.

Addressing the initial part of the request, Reedy made a motion to make the agreement for the festival to use the park for one year only. The motion was seconded by Council Member Tom Close and passed unanimously.

Next, Shuster suggested that a motion be made to approve the usage of the southern end of the park with the stipulation that safety recommendations be addressed.

“Something that we have been talking about for many years is that we wish that the Folk Festival would make use of the amphitheater,” said McCanna. “We have this amphitheater, and we always have the musical venue, so we mention this and now it seems prompt. We have to look at this down the road anyhow.”

Cassesse agreed with McCanna while addressing future festivals.

“Now that the YMCA is moving north, it may be better to have the festival in the southern end of the park in the future because it was always the thing that the YMCA wanted it where they’re at,” said Cassesse. “Now that they’re not going to be there, that can alleviate that problem and it can be put in the larger park in the southern end and you have everything there.”

The members of the Folk Festival Board who were in attendance said that the festival may be moving to the southern end of the park completely by 2012 because of the movement of the YMCA.

At the end of the discussion, the Council voted to allow for the artisans and the vendors to use the southern end of the Riverfront Park for the 40^th Fort Armstrong Folk Festival.

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