The Sauerkraut Days committee is putting the finishing touches on this year’s festival, planned for Aug. 17 through Aug. 20 in Lisbon.
The ice cream social will move back to the Lisbon City Park.
“With school starting on Monday, Aug. 23, we didn’t want to be utilizing the school building,” said Jerry Dietsch, school president. “There are concerns with firing fireworks near the school, and there just isn’t a lot of shade options at that building, either.”
Dietsch said ice cream for the social will be provided by Bass Farms this year, who will also provide several of the inflatables.
The Safety Fair, held by R.C. Rail and other partners, will also return, and they are requesting more space for that event.
Downtown roads will be closed beginning Thursday morning to allow set up for carnival rides and booths.
Dietsch asked permission to use one of the parking areas near the softball diamonds to store rides after Sauerkraut Days, as the school’s parking lot would not be available.
“We try to get the downtown streets open by noon on Sunday, and that staging allows the rides to move from those locations and get the streets back open,” Dietsch said.
The committee was looking for the usual closures of city streets Saturday for the Sauerkraut Days 5K, the parade and the Cabbage Head Car Show.
An issue on the council agenda again this year was if alcohol would be allowed at the softball diamonds.
Dietsch and members of the committee said they had no interest in running a second liquor area for the festival, that they were already busy in the downtown site.
“We’re just not staffed to have two separate liquor licenses, and that’s what the softball diamond would require,” Dietsch said.
No businesses in Lisbon had wanted to host a beer garden or food options at the tournament.
The council agreed to follow the ordinance and not allow alcohol in the parks for the softball tournament this year.