Historical Society to Move Annual Heritage Festival to Buffalo
A view of the controversial hill.
April 1, 2019
(Editor’s Note: This article was posted on April 1st as an April Fools joke. Since it is still being shared post-April 1st, we want to make sure that everyone knows this was a joke.)
The Fair Grove Historical and Preservation Society will be holding a meeting on Saturday, April 6th to decide the fate of the 2019 Fair Grove Heritage Festival. Due to complaints from elderly and handicapped citizens, the Historical Society considers changing the location to Maple Street, Buffalo. 71 year old citizen Leslie Huff stated, “They always hold the festival on the hill. It’s so steep and dangerous that last year I fell just trying to get to the top.”
The Historical Society has made it extremely clear where they stand on this subject. “As an organization we want to make everything as easy as possible for the handicapped. We don’t want our citizens at risk of injury,” described Historical Society President, Jolene Tracy.
“We have contacted the City of Buffalo and they are truly excited to welcome this festival to their city. They have decided to give us Maple Street, which is much more flat and accessible,” she added.
Although the Historical Society is leaning one direction, there are certainly people on the opposing side. Fair Grove citizen Mark Olsen is organizing a march to protest the relocation. He commented, “We can’t change our traditions that we’ve had for decades. I understand that the location is difficult on the elderly, but this is a Fair Grove Festival. We can’t just change that.”
Olsen has announced that the march will start at 9:30 AM at Summer Fresh, and will lead to the Fair Grove City Hall meeting, which begins at 10:00 AM.
The Historical Society has voiced that they are against the march. Tracy defended, “We understand the anger and opposition from the community, but a march is too extreme. Come to the meeting to support whichever side you wish, but don’t fall into the mob mentality against change.”
The Historical Society meeting will take place on Saturday, April 6th at Fair Grove City Hall.
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Sarah Erwin Chapman • Apr 1, 2019 at 1:31 pm
Completely moving the festival seems a bit extreme and the committee should pursue other ways around it to keep it in town. This has always been Fair Groves Festival and I don’t oppose Buffalo having a festival but I believe that the Fairgrove Heritage has been based around the Womack Mill and they could block off the portion of the hill that is precarious or have some type of ramp or other way to acces for Handicap such as a tram to get up the hill.
Janet Leidy • Apr 1, 2019 at 8:41 am
I am also a senior and handicapped with RA. I also have a hard time going up and down the hill, but what I do is rent a a scooter from family pharmacy so I can go up and down the hill. And if they do change it to Buffalo, as far as my husband and I are figure is not considered Fair groves festival anymore.