With the Fourth of July nearly here, the annual Heritage Days celebration was a big topic at the June Huntington City Council meeting. The mayor reported that there will be a lot of entertainment at this year’s festivities. Councilperson Julie Jones reported there would be a lot of food variety too.
Because the Fourth of July is on a Monday this year, the celebration will actually start Friday night July 1 with a dinner and musical entertainment by the Val Jensen band at the city park. The dinner will consist of chicken, corn on the cob, scones and drinks and will either cost $5 per person or will be free if you bring a salad or a dessert. Dinner will start at 6 p.m. with the entertainment at 7:30 p.m.
On Saturday there is a baby contest at 3 p.m. and pet show at 4 p.m.; Are you smarter than a fifth-sixth grader at 5 p.m. The Huntington’s Got talent will be at 6 p.m. and the Mecca bike ride at 7 p.m. The city will host a free ice cream social at 7 p.m. in the city park and then Hope Charissa and her band will do a concert/dance at around 8 p.m. Hope won the Emery County Colgate Country Showdown held at the Emery County Fair last year and participated in the state of Utah showdown.
On July 4 world famous yodeler Kerry Christensen will perform on the city park stage at around 12:30 p.m. following the patriotic program. Christensen has performed around the country including Disney World and his voice has been heard in movies. The Greg Simpson Band will follow Christensen on the stage. This group is a classic rock group that has been performing around the western states. A pancake breakfast will be held from 7-9 a.m. Monday morning. Kid’s parade at 9:30 a.m. followed by the Main Event parade at 10:30 a.m. Fireworks will complete the day at dusk at the ball complex. A dance will be held at the rodeo grounds from 10 p.m. -midnight after the fireworks. The Huntington Glee club will present their patriotic program on Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Huntington Stake Center.
The city had a very successful Heritage Days rodeo last weekend with full crowds and good participants. The mayor reported the carnival that had operated out of the rodeo grounds was a success and brought more than $1,000 into the city coffers.
Councilman Travis Larsen reported that the half marathon, 10K and 5K races will be held Monday morning, the Fourth of July. Sign-up will be at 6 a.m. with the participants then bused to the starting lines. The cost is $20 per person and includes a free T-shirt and free breakfast at the park.
The council and city residents held a lively discussion about the proposed utility rate increases. While a small few wanted no increase in rates, the majority in attendance wanted a reasonable increase knowing that Huntington city is still the cheapest place around for water, sewer and garbage. Some comparable cities have double the bill that Huntington has. The council went with a $2.50 monthly increase to the bill and the citizens were OK with that.
The Mayor reported that Julie Jones did a great job in getting the cemetery prepared for the Memorial Day holiday and that many thanks have come into the city for the appearance of the grounds.
With a new announcer’s stand completed at the rodeo grounds recently, Councilman Mark Justice reported the city needs to do a master plan for the rodeo grounds. The stands need some major repairs and it might be advantageous to look at the future of the whole property. Justice was happy with the carnival and the fact that the carnival took all the risk. He would like to see more events come to town such as bull riders only or circuses that would be willing to do the same thing so that the grounds could be used more often.
The city approved the budget for the 2011-12 budget year.
[dfads params='groups=4969&limit=1&orderby=random']
[dfads params='groups=1745&limit=1&orderby=random']