The Warren Select Board is considering how to improve the Fourth of July parade, following a debrief that included suggestions on crowd control, parking, emergency access and village impacts.
The Aug. 25 discussion opened with a debrief from Ben Olds, who manages the parade for the Mad River Valley Rotary. Olds said this year’s event was the largest in Warren’s history, with an estimated 6,000 people attending despite heavy rain. He said the parade was successful overall, came in under budget and benefited from moving its central hub to the municipal parking lot and adding a second band.
Olds also outlined several lessons for next year. He proposed allowing Warren residents to submit parade themes, narrowing the choices to five and having the town select the final theme. The idea follows controversy over this year’s theme, “Resistance is Revolutionary.”
Other improvements identified by Olds included replacing the missed no-parking signs on Fuller Hill Road, reducing the amount of candy thrown from floats and increasing the number of buses, portable toilets and food vendors to accommodate the crowd.
Olds emphasized that Rotary’s parade committee is made up of volunteers. He said the group would support a new group if the community wanted to take over the event, but that Rotary was willing to continue organizing it.
Board chair Devin Klein Corrigan thanked Rotary for its work and said the town neither has the capacity nor the desire to assume responsibility for organizing the parade.
BANNER YEAR
“We knew we were in for a banner year,” Klein Corrigan said, noting that the parade fell on a Saturday and coincided with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Klein Corrigan read letters from Kathy Mehuron and Leslie Mahoney supporting the parade.
Mahoney, who lives on Main Street near the library, wrote that she was surprised by the criticism she heard after the parade. She described the event as well-attended and said she and her family enjoyed welcoming people onto their porch during the rain. She gave the weekend a “10 out of 10,” while acknowledging that logistical improvements are possible.
Mehuron’s letter defended the parade’s evolving character, pointing to its history of creative and sometimes political displays. She argued that the event’s willingness to embrace new ideas is part of its tradition.
PUBLIC CONCERNS
Several village residents, however, repeated concerns raised at a July board meeting about parking, crowd control, private property and emergency access.
Lisa Miserendino, who lives on Main Street, said she thought this year’s parade was poorly managed compared with previous years. She said she saw an emergency vehicle struggling to get through the crowd and wanted more people assigned to crowd control.
Village resident Alice Cheney said vehicles blocked her driveway on Fuller Hill Road. She said residents should have enough space to turn around during an emergency and suggested more police presence and better protection of private property.
Town constable Jeff Campbell clarified that the emergency incident involved two simultaneous calls. One ambulance, stationed near the north entrance, responded quickly to a person reportedly having a heart attack. A rescue truck responding to another call became trapped by the congestion and was ultimately left behind. Campbell recommended that an ambulance and fire truck remain at the rear of the parade so they could respond if necessary.
MARDI GRAS
George Schenk said the parade is a valuable community tradition and noted that village residents make a sacrifice by hosting it. He suggested that the town recognize that burden while finding ways to accommodate larger crowds.
Resident Marilyn Gaul suggested creating humorous, standardized signs for properties that need special protection from trespassing or other problems, something another speaker echoed later in the meeting when a woman discussed how New Orleans handles crowds and public behavior during Mardi Gras.
That speaker talked about humorous signs warning against public urination, for example, that promised miscreants three extra days in the city, spent in jail awaiting a hearing before a magistrate or signs that promise and encourage paying extra fees is a car is towed from a no-parking zone.
Randy Graves, who said he has not attended the parade in 35 years, offered a more philosophical view. “If you find a story you don’t like, turn the goddamn page,” he said, comparing the parade to reading the newspaper.
Corrigan Klein shared a proposal for parade theme generation from Susan Klein who suggested that a committee of residents, business owners and local representatives gather ideas and then narrow them three or four finalists in January, putting those options to a town-wide vote at Town Meeting, either by voice vote, paper ballot or a sticky-note system on posted themes.
The board also discussed satellite parking, additional barricades, volunteer crowd monitors, radios for better communication, post-parade cleanup crews and clearer guidelines for visitors.
