Silverhill postpones Heritage Day indefinitely

SILVERHILL, Alabama — The Silverhill Town Council decided at its council meeting on Aug. 17 to postpone the town’s annual Heritage Day celebration indefinitely.

The annual event which celebrates the town’s primarily Swedish and Czech heritage, was held for years on the third Saturday in September, but was moved four years ago to April to avoid the summer heat and conflicts with fall activities.

In April, officials announced that the festival, originally scheduled for April 25, has been moved back to Sept. 19, but with the September date looming and the threat of Coronavirus still present, officials discussed options of postponing the festival at its Aug. 17 meeting.

Mayor Jared Lyles suggested moving the festival back to April of 2021, but the town’s assistant clerk Cindy Schulze, who helps organize the festival, said that would cause a conflict with the town’s 125^th anniversary celebration.

“We really wanted to plan the 2021 celebration to coincide with the town’s 125^th anniversary in September,” she said, “so if we’re going to move it to 2021, it really needs to be in September.”

At that point Lyles and town council members agreed to postpone the festival indefinitely until they could decide if there was a date in 2020 that the festival could be held. Otherwise, Lyles said, the festival will have to be canceled until September of 2021.

“In April, we gave vendors the option of refunding their money or holding on until September,” Lyles said. “We will give those vendors the same option now.”

Now in its 36^th year, Heritage Day was first established in 1982 to celebrate the town’ heritage, primarily Swedish and Czech. In that time, the Festival has twice been canceled, in 2005 after Hurricane Ivan in 2004 caused extensive damage to many of the town’s oak trees which lined Main Street (the festival was briefly moved to Havel Park), and in 2016 the decision was made to move the festival to April of 2017.

The town of Silverhill was founded in 1896 under the direction of Oscar Johnson, head of the Svea Land Company from Chicago. Early Swedish colonists celebrated the popular Scandinavian holiday Mid-Summer Fest, first-mention of which in the town’s history can be found as early as 1904.

Prior to the festival in 2016, the decision was made not to hold the festival in September and move it to April.

In other business Aug. 17, the council discussed looking into making modifications to a street paving project as part of a $250,000 Rebuild Alabama Grant.

The $250,000 grant application included resurfacing projects on First, Second, Third, Fourth, Seventh and Ninth Streets, and South Avenue. It also allowed for the widening of some of the streets.

“The cost is going to be higher than initially anticipated,” Lyles said, “so we’re just asking everybody to take a look at it to see where the money will be best spent.”

While streets cannot be added under the terms of the grant, streets included in the grant could be removed and work on those streets could be modified.

Alan Killen with Civil Southeast addressed council members Aug. 17, saying that there is a time limit on the bid process and completion of the project. Killen said the project must be completed within one year when the grant was awarded, which means the project would have to be completed by January of 2021.

 “If we wait too long, we will miss this opportunity,” Killen said. “There has been talk of not even being able to apply for this grant in 2021, but awarding grants to cities who did not receive a grant in 2020. If you don’t take advantage of this opportunity, who knows when you’ll get another.”

Superintendent of Utilities Scottie Smith said he would like to see the town put more emphasis on widening some of the narrower streets.

“I’d say definitely around the park where there’s more traffic needs to be a priority,” Smith said. “We have trucks that if you place them side-by-side are 17 feet wide. There are some streets in this town that are 15 feet wide or less with deep ditches that make it impossible to pass. It’s definitely something that needs to be addressed.”

Lyles asked council members to look over changes that could be made to the grant project to be presented at the council’s next meeting in September.

The town is currently setting aside $25,000 a year for street repaving, Lyles said, part of which would be used for engineering fees not covered by the grant.

The resurfacing would not include Alabama 104 (Main Street), which would fall under the Alabama Department of Transportation, or County Road 55 (Broad Street), which would fall under the Baldwin County Highway Department’s jurisdiction.

In other business Aug. 17, the council:

• Approved library board members for 2020-21.
• Tabled discussion on changes to the town’s towing ordinance proposed by Police Chief Kenneth Hemfleng, who was not present for the Aug. 17 meeting.
• Renewed the town’s contact with the Central Baldwin Chamber of Commerce.
• Discussed purchasing tickets for the upcoming Central Baldwin Chamber of Commerce’s Flavors of the South, which was postponed from July to Oct. 15 at the Baldwin County Coliseum in Robertsdale.
• Approved a quote from Datatrust for computer maintenance for the police department.
• Approved a resolution adopting the Rebuild Alabama Transportation Plan for 2021. The resolution is required in order to lay out plans for utilizing funds from a state gas tax passed by the State Legislature in 2020.
• Approved a resolution for financing a new truck for the town’s fire department. Funds will come from an account maintained by the fire department, said Chief Josh Rice, but since the fire department is not allowed to own equipment in order to maintain volunteer status, financing for the truck must come from the town.