Sweet Home Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Melody Reese said that she was “happy to see the community come alive again” during last weekend’s Sportsman’s Holiday.
“It was refreshing and encouraging that so many people were willing to coordinate events and get a full lineup going after not having any activities for so long,” she said.
Reese said “Cut the Gut was our best one yet.”
She noted that the chamber sold out of “passports” at the event and had to create makeshift ones, and estimated that 325 passports were given out in all.
She also mentioned that the checkpoints the Cut the Gut participants stopped at “went above and beyond this year with fun activities and prizes for cruisers.”
Results from the event were not available before The New Era went to press.
Police Chief Jeff Lynn said he put on additional officers this year during the cruise “just to have better monitoring of the event – make sure everybody’s abiding by the law, not getting carried away.”
He said last year’s turnout was so immense, the Police Department was caught off guard.
“We were understaffed, unprepared. I think the added presence was improved from the previous year.
“From our standpoint, the public safety aspect of it, things went really well.”
The “parade was great, too,” Reese said.
“We had a lot of entries come in, last minute. People just wanted to be involved once they found out about it,” she added.
Lynn said the parade route that was limited to Long Street posed some “challenges,” as it dead-ended at Oak Terrace, “but we worked through that. There were no issues from our standpoint.”
He said he’d like to see the route go back to a loop around Main and Long streets next year, “barring something else happening.”
The fireworks on Saturday were set off at a different location than their typical launch point at Foster Lake, but the show still went on.
Fire Chief Dave Barringer, whose volunteers put on the show, said the weather was “perfect,” for it – “75 degrees, with humidity and a little wind. We were pretty happy with how it turned out.”
He said no fires occurred from fireworks. Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District coordinated with Oregon Department of Forestry to monitor the area during the show.
“We enjoyed it,” Barringer said. “Sportsman’s Holiday is always an extra effort for us and this was a much bigger show.”
The launching of fireworks from the county property north of 24th Avenue made life a lot easier for the police, Lynn said, because the crowds at Foster Lake were greatly reduced.
“From the public safety aspect, it was far superior to what we deal with when we had it at the lake,” he said. “That’s not the popular answer, perhaps, but we avoided crowding and traffic jams. Again, just speaking from the public safety aspect, it was far superior.”
Reese credited city leaders for finding “a way to make it happen despite the restrictions on crowds earlier this year.”
“I’m glad that we could have a fireworks show this year, and I’m really thankful for our city leaders and our volunteer fire association,” she said.
“It may not be what everybody’s used to, but I thought it was a great show,” she added.
The Logger Olympics were also back on, after two-year gap.
Reese said she heard feedback about folks “enjoying seeing working loggers do their thing” at the event.