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The meeting began
with the treasurer's report from Paul Short. The committee has
brought in $53,678.02 in finances, while expenses currently are at
$33,983.35. The total cost of the sesquicentennial will be over
$100,000. Short said that when inflation is factored in, the cost of
this year's event is comparable to the cost of Lincoln's 1953
centennial celebration.
Theresa Usherwood of
the publicity committee said that ads for the sesquicentennial have
been placed in a large number of magazines. Countries as far away as
Wales and the United Kingdom have advertising about the celebration.
In England a big story about Route 66 mentioned Lincoln's
sesquicentennial.
Groups have contacted
Usherwood, inquiring if they could set up booths at the celebration.
The National Guard wants to set up a booth. A vendor with a ring
toss for kids also wants to have a booth. The booths for vendors are
available for a $25 fee. Nonprofit groups like the National Guard
can have a booth at no charge.
Roger Matson,
co-chair of the parade committee, said that he expects almost 50
entries in the parade. He currently is close to that number. The
deadline for entering the parade is July 31. Matson said that there
are five or six bands in the parade and 11 floats. The senior
citizens have an FX flatbed truck entered, with 16 seniors presently
signed up to ride. Senior citizens have to be 75 years of age to
ride in the parade. There will be miscellaneous floats sponsored by
Logan Lanes, the Junior Woman's Club and the Coalition for Citizens
with Disabilities. A float representing the 1953 centennial will be
presented by the Lincoln High School class of 1953. Tom Cash will
drive a 1953 Buick in front of a tractor pulling the float.
Heritage in Flight
Museum has two antique Jeeps to drive. Four groups of horses will
participate. Fifty tractors, some of them antiques, will also
participate. There will be 16 antique cars.
Scully Park will be
the site of events put on by the local railsplitting association.
Members of the association will be in period clothing. They will
make doughnuts and kettle popcorn and will have a large float.
Railsplitters are coming from other places to help Lincoln celebrate
the sesquicentennial.
Don Vinson, the other
co-chair of the parade committee, reported that the Elk's Club golf
pro, Adam Welch, had donated six gas-powered golf carts to provide
transportation to the parade for people who need it. There will also
be other vehicles to transport people with special transportation
needs.
The committee
indicated that they need some form of transportation for dignitaries
to ride in. Convertibles, antique cars and even tractors are being
considered.
Sharon Awe brought
sesquicentennial cards and heavy sesquicentennial bags to show the
committee. Awe said that she is trying to figure out where and when
to sell souvenirs. City merchants will sell the items during the
day, so she is looking at where to sell them in the evenings. The
committee will look at the possibility of keeping the art and
balloon fest tent in Latham Park up throughout the week for
souvenirs.
The committee chose
to use Bobby Olson's pressed pennies, quarters and nickels as the
sesquicentennial coins. Metal coins made by Olson will also be used.
All of the coins will have Abraham Lincoln's image on one side Olson
has provided the committee with 450 coins and will provide more.
Olson would like to have a booth at the celebration.
Charles Ott said that
there will be a Lincoln look-alike contest for people from the local
community to participate in. Six Abraham Lincoln impersonators are
coming. Ott said he would ask the Lincoln impersonators to judge the
contest. Two of them will walk in the parade.
Ethnic food chair
Roger Bay said that railsplitters will put on demonstrations at the
ethnic festival in Scully Park. He said that the ethnic food will be
located between the railsplitters and the flea markets in Scully
Park. Ethnic food will be available from 4 p.m. to dusk on Friday
evening, Aug. 29; from 11 a.m. to dusk on Saturday, Aug. 30; and 11
a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 31.
On Tuesday, Aug. 26,
Jerry Berglin, manager of Friendship Manor, will have an open house
from 2 to 4 p.m. There will be food, drinks, memorabilia from the
1953 centennial and a hot-air balloon.
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In the evening of
Aug. 26 there will be an 1860s baseball game, following the rules
from that period. The rules of the game then were very different
from the rules of the game today.
Greg Pelc said that
the music lineup will include Christian Colton, a classical
guitarist; a square dance demonstration; Petra, a Christian rock
band; and Old Time Jam, which will be playing 1850 parade music for
the ice cream social.
Pelc said that the
main stage needs a trailer of some kind where band members can
change during their shows.
Shirley Bartelmay,
chair of the Postville Cluster, said that there will be a
blacksmith, and Lee and Carol Schaffer will do wool dyeing, among
other activities at the craft fair.
Five contestants are
running for sesquicentennial queen.
Margaret Peifer said
that following the 3 p.m. interdenominational church service on
Sunday, Aug. 31 in Latham Park there will be an old-fashioned
chicken dinner at the Knight of Columbus Hall. For the service, the
Rev. David Hultberg of the Sherman United Methodist Church will
serve as a circuit-riding preacher, reminiscent of the early
chautauqua that was part of Lincoln's history. He will be riding
Timex, the horse used for Abraham Lincoln to ride in the tourism
video recently completed here in Logan County.
Mass choirs of both
adults and children will provide the special music, and members of
the Lincoln clergy will conduct parts of the service. The Rev.
Wallace Reifsteck (retired) and the Rev. Glenn Shelton, co-chairs of
service planning committee, have sent a letter to all of Lincoln's
pastors asking for their help and support.
Paul Beaver, the
history chair, said that the sesquicentennial book about the past 50
years in Lincoln is being typed by Rose Adams and will be sold at
the celebration. The book will be a chronology of the events of the
last half century.
Beaver also said that
the Illinois Symphony Orchestra will bring 46 members to perform on
the evening of Aug. 31
.
Bobbi Abbott reported
that Russell Stover has volunteered to have an information booth on
their property. The business will allow people to use their
facilities and will provide ice water to the booth volunteers. The
booth, just off Interstate 55, will provide information to people as
they exit I-55 and will be open on Wednesday, Aug. 20, through Aug.
31.
On Tuesday, Aug. 26,
souvenir passports designed by Key Printing will be given out.
People can get stamps or souvenirs from businesses and autographs
from celebrities attending the celebration by using these passports.
There will also be a small business exposition and tours of
businesses. Weyerhaeuser Corrugated has designed a Postville
Courthouse model that will fold into a bank and will be given away.
Walt Landers and Bob
Thomas reported on the plans for trash collection during the
celebration. A report was also given on bathroom facilities. Marilyn
Wheat said that Casey's and the Fifth Street Food Mart near
Postville have offered their facilities for people to use. There
will also be porta-potties available.
Kristy Lessen from
MADD and the Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Task Force asked the
committee if the task force could have an alcohol-free activity for
teenagers on one of the weekend evenings. She would like to have a
battle of the bands. The task force has done this in the past at
Latham Park. The committee said that Latham Park would be available
on Saturday evening from 8 until 11 p.m. The task force will check
with the Logan County Board for permission to use the park.
The sesquicentennial
committee still has a few technical issues to resolve such as the
number of two-way radios they need and the number of public address
systems needed. They also need to decide what kinds of electrical
needs they have.
The committee has planned a celebration
filled with a variety of events. They have put a lot of time and
work into planning the sesquicentennial. They will be meeting on a
weekly basis beginning next week until the sesquicentennial is over.
[Don
Todd]
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