By Adam Pack
The Ronceverte City Council met for their regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, June 5, and heard a request from Dan Withrow regarding the upcoming June edition of the Ronceverte Food Truck Festival.
Withrow and his associate Alexis Degraff were present to update the council on the inaugural food truck festival, which they called a “huge success” and said “if you came by you saw that we had so many people there. We honestly could have used one more food truck.” There were some minor electrical issues, with Degraff reporting that one of the food trucks had to request the permission of CSX to use electricity from one of their buildings.
Degraff and Withrow were very happy with the progress of the food truck festival so far, but requested that at the next installment of the event that they receive an extra day and an extra allotment of space. They proposed closing the street on Thursday as opposed to Friday, which would “greatly reduce the hectic nature of set-up if we had an extra day, and it would coincide well with our plans’’ to have an ALS fundraiser at Withrow’s establishment, The Sportsman Tavern. The pair also requested an elongated area for closure, extending the food truck festival’s end to Cedar Street. This would help with the crowding that accompanied the May festival. The city was sympathetic to the request, but would like the pair to discuss the method and scope of potential street closures with affected businesses before permitting the closure and date extension, which Degraff and Withrow were happy to do.
The June Food Truck Festival will run Friday, June 16, from 12 to 10 p.m. and Saturday, June17, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Edgar Avenue. Food vendors this month include Bandit BBQ, Greenbrier Dairy, Kobe Asian Fusion, Makhni in the Mountains (butter chicken), Potluck, Rebel’s Kitchen, Sixpence Pizza, The Hungry Hillbilly, The Rolling Stove, Twisted Sisterz, and When Pigs Fly BBQ.
Music acts on Edgar Ave. will be Bicycle, Emmalea Deal & The Hot Mess, Kit Lindsey, Kodie Brooks, Mad Dog and Platypus, Ma’am, and Phil Rolleston. There will also be a large selection of artisanal vendors selling wares throughout the festival.
In other news, the city announced the formation of the Mayor’s Volunteer Corps. The Corps, an initiative to facilitate and identify volunteer opportunities and efforts in the city, was described by Mayor Pack as “an opportunity to give young people in the community, especially those looking to complete volunteer hours during their senior year of high school.”
The city was also glad to announce that the opening of the Splash Pad was a huge success and has remained a popular spot for kids and families. Mayor Pack recalled that “we attempted to do a speech commemorating the opening, but there were so many excited kids that were so excited we weren’t able to get a word in, which is a good sign we think.”
Anthony Brown of the Thrasher Group was present, as well, to update the town on upcoming wastewater related work. Designs for upcoming wastewater work are being finalized, described as “sixty to seventy percent done” by Brown. When asked about the timetable for Thrasher’s work, Brown said that, “it’s difficult to estimate this one, because there are some very old lines, perhaps pipe bursts underground we don’t know about. I would say at least six months from start to finish, and we should be ready to begin late [this] year or early next [year], but it could take up to a year.”
The city also passed Resolution #7, G-RON-004, an approval for payment related to design and construction of the sewer system repairs project, as well as the first reading of Ordinance 2023-09, titled “An Ordinance Requiring Conditional Use Permit for Sidewalk Use,” which will go to a second reading at the July meeting of the city council.
The Ronceverte City Council will meet again on July 3, at 7 p.m. in the New City Hall Building on Edgar Avenue. The public is encouraged to attend, and to call ahead first at 304-657-5455, as times and or dates are subject to change.
