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There are always plenty of fun and games in Spring Valley during its Summerfest celebration, but this year’s event will be bigger and better.
The Spring Valley City Council on Monday night approved a petition from the city’s Park Board to have the Wilson’s Family Show out of Bloomington provide a long sought after carnival along St. Paul Street from June 19-22.
Mayor Melanie Malooley Thompson and Park Board president David Baracani met with representatives of Wilson’s Family Show and liked what they learned.
“Their take on this is that this is a top-notch carnival,” Alderman Dave Pellegrini said. “It’s very well-run, it’s professional, it’s clean and well-maintained. We’re all pretty impressed with it.
“We’ve been doing Summerfest for the last couple of years, and admittedly, we’re not totally satisfied with it. We’ve been trying to a couple years now to land a decent carnival to kind of take us back to the old times and branch off of that. We’ve already got bands booked for Friday and Saturday night. We’re working on food vendors. Grow Spring Valley has asked to be a guest with their Friday night markets, which we will accept … We’re excited about this. It’s going to be a fun-packed weekend.”
Yet to be determined by the Park Board, Pellegrini said, are the exact logistics and locations, specifically the routing of traffic, what the electrical power needs will be, etc., but it is looking forward to a good carnival experience.
The council also agreed to extend its current contract with Comcast of Illinois/Iowa/Ohio LLC as the city’s TV cable provider. When informed that the contract is for an additional 10 years, one alderman wished aloud that there was more competition vying for the cable dollar among Spring Valley citizens and was assured by City Attorney Patrick Barry that it could bring in other companies to compete and let the citizens choose their own provider.
In other action, the council:
Learned that Geneseo Communications, a home and business internet provider, will begin installing fiberoptic cable in the city on March 1. Thompson said Geneseo is already the provider for Peru and can easily extend its service into Bureau County.
Approved a business development grant for Jacob Frost to improved the front of his law offices at 102 E. St. Paul St.
Approved the request of St. Bede Academy to conduct a blood drive in the city on Feb. 11.
Approved the low bids for the installation of plumbing and a new floor at the community center.