Mark your calendars now for a weekend of sterling fun this Independence Day. Overland Trail Museum curator Kay Rich shared her plans for this year’s four-day Fourth of July celebration Monday at a meeting of the Sterling Parks, Library and Recreation Board.
The highlight of the weekend will be a Colorado Vintage Baseball Association game on Sunday, July 3. The 1860s baseball team will face off against a team made up of local community members at the Pioneer Park baseball diamonds. Rich and other organizers are currently working on recruiting players for the home team.
“They’re really, really fun, we got them a couple of years ago and they’re just awesome,” she said.
Due to the baseball game, this year the museum will move its annual Heritage Festival to Pioneer Park to run at the same time as the game. Rich said they considered having the game and festival at the park on July 4, but that was not possible due to the fireworks setup that night.
In addition to Sunday and Monday’s activities, there will be a July Jamz concert at the Logan County Courthouse Square on Friday night and on Saturday, events will include a “Great Sanctioned BBQ”, Heritage of the Plains Beer & Wine Fest, a cornhole tournament and street concert, all downtown.
“It’s going to be a really fun weekend, super excited about it,” Rich said.
Holiday events are hosted by the museum, the Logan County Chamber of Commerce, and the Logan County Arts League.
Rich also shared that the museum’s Talking Trail, a free mobile app that shares heritage and culture with listeners in an audio tour format, is now in place, but they’re still waiting for signs to be put up. The signs are expected to be in place by April 1, when the museum begins its summer hours.
Superintendent of Recreation Monty Waite told council that the Sterling Recreation Center launched the Renew Active program, an offshoot of SilverSneakers for Medicare/Medicaid, on March 1.
“I’m still dealing with some of the stuff they sent over what we’re supposed to accept because there’s some really big names in there for state employees and stuff that I’m a bit concerned about. “, he said.
The center had to develop a tracking program for this and issue members an ID card that they can enter and scan instead of a staff member having to physically write down the names. So far it seems to be working fine.
Following the launch of the Renew Active program, the center is renegotiating its SilverSneakers contract, “to try to make them fair and just all around, so no one has more fun than the others,” Waite said.
The center is in the last week of its second session of swimming lessons. Waite said they had a great turnout and the officials reviewed the program and “reassessed our instructors somewhat to see where they actually checked the kids before passing them, to make sure they could master the skills. “. This is because a swimmer was passed to level five, but really couldn’t pass the required skills beyond level two and had to be pushed back.
“I tell lifeguards if you have any doubts, if they’re in between or if you’re unsure of them, don’t go past them, because those are the kids you’re going to have to put in the water to go. seek,” Waite said.
The lifeguard courses will take place on March 26 and 27 and the water safety instructor courses will take place on April 9 and 10.
Waite also shared that the recreation division decided to cancel the inaugural season of young boys’ volleyball because each division was missing three or four kids. They hope to be able to attract more players next year by renaming it a bit and trying to involve some of the outlying schools.
Wildcat Softball will take place however and registration for it will go out after Spring Break.
Library superintendent Sandy Van Dusen said their programs were well attended and encouraged all ages to participate in the library’s Spring Break Reading Challenge.
Parks, Cemeteries and Forestry Superintendent Jamie Ulrich reported that his crews are busy removing trees and working on wood chips around tree rings that need to be replaced as they decay.
In addition, PLR Director Wade Gandee informed council that the Public Works Department has submitted a grant application for the second section of the city’s walking/cycling path from Cheyenne Boulevard to Main Street. They had already applied for the grant and were unsuccessful, but they were able to resubmit the application without having to make many changes.
Because this is part of the section of the trail that will connect the schools together, the city plans to make it concrete, but other areas of the trail will be soft trails.
Gandee also shared that the city has issued a tender for a sidewalk to be installed at the museum where the new print shop and media center is located and to repair the recreation center parking lot. He explained that the islands in this parking area need to be moved around a bit, because right now the flooding in the streets is preventing things from developing there. This is the third time they have issued a tender and hope to receive offers this time.
