Palestine A&P discusses parade, Christmas plans

Commissioners want later start to allow time for downtown activities

The Palestine Advertising and Promotion Commission on Monday decided to recommend making a change to the annual Christmas parade.

Commissioners discussed the possibility of changing the parade's starting time from 6 to 7 p.m., to allow for all of the downtown activities to be held prior to the start of the parade.

They also discussed the process for selecting a grand marshal for the parade as well as when the downtown decorations would need to be put up.

Commissioner Michelle Garner said she had been told that the City of Palestine is supposed to be in charge of selecting a grand marshal.

"No, and let me explain why," said Garner. "When the minutes for that meeting were done, I had to come up here for something and I was asked why we picked the grand marshal for the parade. I was told by Robin (Blackwell) – now she didn't know and she was fresh to the job at this time – but she told me that she was told that the city was in charge of selecting the grand marshal, that the city was to conduct the parade and that the city was in charge of the judges. We need to get that straight. She only asked because she was new at the job at the time and needed to know what to do. They supposedly have a list of all of the people who have served as grand marshal in the past and people they would like to have as grand marshal."

"You know what I say? Mark it off," said commissioner Glenn Gore. "Let them have it. The city will take care of it."

Gore said the group needs to contact former commissioner Josh Hurd to find out what decorations the group has available for the downtown area.

"When would you all like to put up the Christmas tree?” asked Gore. "Let's move on to something we can do."

"The parade is the first weekend of December, on Dec. 3," said Garner.

"I think we should put it up the week before Thanksgiving," said commissioner Burt Swiney.

"Or at least the weekend after," said Garner. "The weekend of Thanksgiving, I don't want stuff to be thrown together. I don't want to wait until the week of to start decorating downtown if we want to do better with the lights and things. Last year, the tree was put up the day before the parade. I would love to organize the lights a little better."

"We need someone to contact Josh (Hurd) about finding out what all we have," said Gore. "We need to know what all we have and go from there."

"We can plan to start the setup on November 19, the week before Thanksgiving," said Garner. "I am off work on Monday and Tuesday

so I can work on the decorations on those days."

According to Garner, the events coinciding with the annual parade need to have more food options available to hopefully attract a crowd for a longer period of time.

"Are we going to have a S'mores area set up this year?” asked Gore. "Are we going to have any activities?"

"Here is what happened last year," said Garner. "It hits right at suppertime. Everyone scatters after the parade ends because they want to go eat. By the time the carriage ride got back around with the grand marshal and Santa made his way to the downtown area, everybody was gone. That is why I said if we could start the stuff downtown earlier with a food truck then maybe we could get people to stick around."

"We need to acknowledge that we need help with these things," said commissioner Cindy Smallwood. "We need to ask people to help us."

"We need to decide if we are going to have other kinds of food there," said Garner.

Garner said that if the parade was to start at a later time, the group could hold the treelighting ceremony and reading of the Christmas Story prior to the parade.

"What if we have the activities before the parade starts?" asked Smallwood.

"I recommended that once before," said Garner. "I said that a 6 p.m., start to the parade was too early. I believe that both Wynne and Forrest City both start their parades at 7. If we could move the parade to 7 p.m., and get all of the downtown stuff done ahead of the parade, we won't have to worry about people leaving."

"That will have to be approved by the city first," said Swiney.

"If we are going to spend all of this A&P money on all of this stuff, it shouldn't be wasted money because people leave," said Garner.

"I don't see the reason to start the parade so early anyway," said commissioner Derrick Boileau. "Let people get something to eat before coming to the parade."

Commissioners unanimously agreed to recommend changing the starting time for the parade to the Palestine City Council at the group’s next meeting.