Holts Summit community event planned

FILE: The Holts Summit Board of Aldermen met Tuesday evening.
FILE: The Holts Summit Board of Aldermen met Tuesday evening.

HOLTS SUMMIT, Mo. - What started as a grand opening has turned into a Holts Summit Community Celebration.

Holts Summit Community Betterment Association President Christopher Scott outlined the plan for the Sept. 19 event during the Holts Summit Board of Aldermen meeting Tuesday evening.

"So we started the event to do it as a community celebration because there haven't been a lot of activities this summer," Scott said. "It started out fairly small and has grown. It's huge now."

The event began as a grand opening for a new event area at Melby's Chill Zone, with vendors and raffles to help raise money for the Friends of Holts Summit for the splash pad fundraiser.

Mid-Missouri band Murphy's Ford will perform, and the event will include a beer garden. Food will be provided by a local Boy Scout troop as a joint fundraiser to share profits with the association. The Southern Community Church will also have a bounce house for children.

The event will begin at 4 p.m. with children's activities and raffles at the Holt Summit Greenway Park on the field behind the Civic Center. Murphy's Ford is scheduled to start playing at 7 p.m.

There will be a gate fee of $10, with children 12 and younger admitted free.

"We moved it to the back field behind the Civic Center because there's more room," Scott said. "Also, groups can come in and socially distance - spread a blanket, put it on the ground, lawn chairs, whatever it is."

Temperatures will be scanned at the event using facial-scanning technology.

"We're trying to keep things as safe as possible and still have little fun with it," Scott said.

He said the event planners are still looking for raffle items.

Another event the board discussed Tuesday was the Christmas Parade and Tree Lighting. Last year, the Holts Summit Christmas Parade and Tree Lighting took place on the same day. This year, the possibility of scheduling the tree lighting to start immediately after the parade was discussed.

The board will make the final decision about whether to go through with the December events in November.

Holts Summit Police Chief Kyle McIntyre said the city's Police Department is planning on going forward with its trunk-or-treat event this year.

"Just because I feel like there have been so many that are going to be shut down," McIntyre said. "I just figured we need to do something because I don't know if the churches will do their trunk-or-treats."

The board also approved a pay request on the USDA sewer project. Work on the wastewater overhaul began this summer and is expected to last until January 2022.

"They are moving right along," Lechner said.

The board also discussed a bid related to ensuring Holts Summit City Hall has power in an emergency situation. The city has a back-up generator, but should a storm take it out, the city wants to be able to put in a new one.

The cost associated with a new hook-up and transfer switch was not worked into this year's budget. The board decided to look into additional bids and eventually include the project in next year's budget.

Also on the agenda was the approval of liquor license applications and a special use permit for Greenway Park, the surplusing of a police vehicle, conflict of interest procedures and the placement of a lien for unpaid sewer bills at a Holts Summit property.