Hometown Christmas will be full event this year

By Editor | October 11, 2023 |

By Carmen Ensinger

It has become a regular part of the Winchester City Council meeting for members of the Civic Group to give updates on the happenings withing the group.

A couple weeks ago, a plea was made by members of the Hometown Christmas Planning Committee that more volunteers were needed to help plan the event if this year’s was going to be what everyone has come to expect. The group was down to just three active members of this particular committee and with just three, about all they were going to be able to do this year was decorate Douglas Park.

Hometown Christmas Planning Committee Member Stevie VanDeVelde told the council that they have had a couple of volunteers come forward so they are planning on a typical event on Dec. 2. However, things will be a little different this year.

“We are still a little more limited with our volunteers so we are just going to focus on that day (Dec. 2),” VanDeVelde said. “We used to have things throughout the month of December. For example, we would have Santa arrive that first Saturday and then in the Santa house every Saturday until Christmas. We are not planning on doing that this year.”

They are planning for another event on Dec. 16.

“We have a group planning for a Christmas Scavenger Hunt,” VanDeVelde said. “This event will be focused more on the children, but adults will be welcome as well. We will be having Santa participate as well.”

VanDeVelde said that they are also working on an event for Dec. 9 but they are still needing volunteers for this event so she would rather not mention that now.

“But we are planning on having something for those three weekends to try and attract people to Winchester this Christmas season,” VanDeVelde said.

VanDeVelde said she had a few favors to ask of the city regarding Hometown Christmas.

“One of the things we wanted to ask was if we could have the park raked before we start decorating,” she said. “Last year there were a lot of leaves and by the time we decorated they were mixed into the decorations and it wasn’t very appealing.”

Their second request was if they could have the Santa House moved to the Square by the day they start decorating, which will be Nov. 18 so they can decorate it when they decorate the park.

Mayor Rex McIntire said it should not be a problem for the city workers to have the park cleaned up and the Santa House, which is on a trailer, moved into place on the square by the time indicated.

The Winchester Key Club is planning to have the Christmas Lighted Parade again this year, but they have requested to change the time from 6 p.m. to possibly 7 p.m. due to sports activities that day.

“Principal Denny Vortman has requested the time change to allow those kids participating in those sporting events to get back to town to participate in the parade,” VanDeVelde said. “We would also like some help to barricade off the square.”

R.J. Pasley, who is on the Parks and Recreation Committee said their goal is to improve the park. Last month he proposed turning one of the tennis courts into two pickle ball courts.

“Pickle ball is something that is attractive to all age groups,” Pasley said. “It is a cross between tennis and ping pong and is much slower for us older folks.”

It also requires less space.

“I went up to the YMCA in Jacksonville and took the dimensions of their pickle ball courts and brought back some photos to show you,” Pasley said. “With the dimensions of our current tennis courts we can put two pickle ball courts on one of our current tennis courts and keep the other court for tennis.”

Pasley said the existing blacktop on the courts is cracked and in bad shape as well as the blacktop on the basketball courts. He wants the council to consider upgrading the blacktop until they can move on the grant process to do more permanent improvements to the park.

“I have a bid here from Slo-Mo Excavation in Bluffs for repairing the existing cracks on the surface out there and coating the surface,” he said. “Surface area is 42 by 120 and it would be $2,400 for each one for a total of $4,800 which doesn’t including the painting or striping.”

Pasley said he wanted the council to consider doing this now.

“I have noticed a lot of participation on the basketball courts lately,” he said. “And the surface is very questionable because there are a lot of cracks. It is my hope that we can maintain and upgrade our existing facilities and equipment until we can move forward with some more aggressive projects.”

Mayor McIntire said they would consider it.