Mena Christmas Festival CANCELLED – Christmas Parade Postponed Until Monday, December 16

BY LEANN DILBECK –

The Mena Advertising & Promotion Commission (A&P) have made the very difficult decision Wednesday afternoon to cancel this year’s much anticipated Christmas Festival and the Mena/Polk County Chamber of Commerce has again been forced to postpone their annual Christmas Parade to Monday, December 16, with the threat of precipitation forecasted for this Friday.

At last night’s City Council meeting, members learned of the extensive damage Janssen Park sustained during the recent ice storm. Adding to the difficulty is the challenge of getting all the twinkling lights to work with all of the moisture.

With the county already being under a Disaster Declaration, city officials are hopeful that the damage estimate will meet the threshold to qualify for federal aid and FEMA officials are not expected on the ground in Polk County until 8:30 a.m. Monday, December 16.  So city crews are unable to clean-up in time to ensure everyone’s safety to attend festivities in Janssen Park.

To reiterate, the fireworks show, all activities at the armory, carriage rides, Spirit Street, and the official lighting ceremony have been cancelled for 2013 but the Chamber’s annual Christmas Parade, “The Joy of Christmas,” will again light up Mena Street at 6 p.m. Monday, December 16.  And MyPulseNews.com will be broadcasting the event LIVE with special hosts Farrell Cole and Joshua Marshall.

For more information, please call the Mena/Polk County Chamber of Commerce at 479-394-2912.

About Author

Jeri Pearson

Jeri is the News Director for Pulse Multi-Media and Editor of The Polk County Pulse. She has 10 years of experience in community focused journalism and has won multiple press association awards.

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