By Alderson Mayor Travis Copenhaver
To clear confusion and misinformation, the Christmas Parade in Alderson is Friday, Dec. 6 at 6 p.m. This is an un-judged parade. There is no registration. It’s just a fun parade when the Queen of Lights waves her magic wand and for a few moments, the magic of the Season happens.
Line-up is on Virginia Street and will end at the Alderson Volunteer Fire Department where the children will get to talk to Santa. Line-up begins at 5. The parade route will proceed to the “new bridge” and then on to the fire station.
This year, the parade route will not cross the Memorial Bridge. This is due to an incomplete assessment that is in progress to determine needed repairs to the bridge. While performing part of the assessment, structural concerns arose with the weight of the fire trucks, crowd, and multiple vehicles.
Public safety is paramount and after being provided the information, this decision was made to not take the parade route (or any other until the full report from WV DOH is complete) across the bridge.
The bridge will still be lit and decorated as always and is perfectly fine for pedestrian and UTV/ATV traffic, just not a large gathering of heavier vehicles.
We are very sorry to have to make this decision. Unfortunately, this is not going to be a fast, easy, or cheap fix issue. Council and I fully anticipate our grant writer to be very busy as we focus on this issue once we have the full report.
