Commission approves car show date and time, honors GRC JROTC

Published 4:31 pm Tuesday, January 24, 2023

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Last Tuesday, the Winchester Board of Commissioners had a special meeting agenda at 4:30 p.m. and a regularly scheduled 5:30 p.m. session.

Several points were addressed.

Among them, the commission decided on hours for a downtown car show event in late April, while also honoring the award-winning JROTC of George Rogers Clark High School.

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During the 4:30 session, Robbie Fountain of Remember When Cruiserz car club requested to close Depot Street and Main Street from Washington Street to Lexington Avenue from April 28th – 30th for a downtown car show event.

Proceeds gained from the event, hosted in collaboration with Holder Entertainment, would go on to support care and research for cystic fibrosis.

“We’re not making anything off of it…what we’re wanting to do is bring business and traffic to Winchester to help the businesses,” Fountain said. “We want to make a map of the businesses downtown – the restaurants – to pass out to people downtown, so they all know where they’re located.”

While supportive of the cause, Mayor Reed raised concerns regarding Friday, April 28.

Robert Pritchett, owner of Bargains on Broadway, also spoke.

“[With] any business, [and] any function, I have to consider my business, my employees, and how I pay my bills,” he said. “We want growth in Winchester, we want festivals in Winchester, but we also want our brick-and-mortar stores to stay. We can’t stay if we block off the roads and we take all the parking from our normal business.”

Pritchett also pointed to the loss of revenue and interference with auctions as concerns.

The city commission voted to reserve the car show to Depot Street on Friday night and move the start of the car show to 12:00 p.m. on Saturday.

Thus, the auction by Bargains on Broadway could take place without interference.

At the 5:30 meeting, several girls from the George Rogers Clark JROTC program were awarded a certificate of achievement.

Recently, in the All Service Raider National Championship – Female Division, a team of eleven girls from the high school achieved 1st place in one rope bridge competition and third place overall.

The eleven girls are Bailey Wood, Emma Plummer, Lillian Perry, Aliyah Newsome, Breeanna McKinney, Penelope McIntosh, Lydia Lunsford, Allie Endricks, Tara Daniels, Monica Crews, and Rori Cooper.

Their coaches – Master Sergeant Larry Lee and Lieutenant Colonel Tom Krupp – also received certificates.

In other recognition, a certificate was awarded to William Pritchett “for exemplifying what it means to be a caring volunteer to the City of Winchester!”

Pritchett provided meals and other customer services to community members on Christmas Day.

Certainly not least, Brian Ward of Palmer Engineering and Jeff Lewis of Winchester-Clark County Parks and Recreation were present to speak about current developmental plans for Eugene Gay Splash Park.

“We’ll be bidding this project [at] the end of the month. We should have bids in hand by the end of February,” said City Manager Mike Flynn. “That’s going to dictate a lot of where we go once we get those bids. The way the environment is right now…we need to make sure that we’ve crossed all t’s and dotted all i’s before we move forward.”