Published April 17, 2008

Wash Out - Big events rescheduled for this weekend

No one in our drought-ridden county would likely have wanted last Friday night’s rain or Saturday morning’s sprinkles to go away, but organizers for two large events scheduled for the weekend were probably asking Mother Nature to bring it again another day.
The weather caused cancellation of Friday night’s Main Street Mania, featuring two local blues bands. Weather also nixed the opening day ceremony and games of the recreation department’s softball, baseball and T-ball leagues.
Taci Williams, Finance Director and event coordinator for the City of Jasper, said she was disappointed Main Street Mania had to be cancelled but felt it necessary for the safety of participants.
“We were prepared for rain or shine, but we weren’t willing to do it with tornadoes in the area,” Williams said. “We got reports of tornado watches in Gordon County and one possibly in Rome. We were watching the weather the whole time and just decided it was getting too close to us.”
Williams said city officials waited until right at 7 p.m. to make the call, hoping the weather system would go around the town.
“I think the tornadoes had scared most of the people off from downtown anyway,” she said. “But at the end of the day, our whole goal in doing this is to bring business to downtown, and a lot of the restaurants were packed that night. We did bring some extra business to downtown, and that’s what we set out to do.”
Main Street Mania is reset for this Friday at 7 p.m. with John King Trio opening up the night’s musical entertainment, followed by Hogleg at 8 p.m.
“According to the forecast right now, we’ll have nice weather, so people should come out and enjoy the great music and great food offered downtown,” Williams said.
Friday night wasn’t the only weekend event washout as the recreation department director cancelled Saturday’s opening day ceremonies and games for the spring softball, baseball and T-ball leagues.
“I know people thought I was crazy to cancel, because it wound up being such a beautiful day later in the afternoon,” said Recreation Department Director Greg Walker. “The fields were swamped Friday night, and I came out at 5 a.m. thinking it would be a no-brainer to cancel, but the fields had drained well and were in excellent condition. There were a lot of other factors that went into the decision.”
Walker said many people told him he shouldn’t have canceled the afternoon games since the weather cleared off and was sunny that afternoon, but the recreation director said when you are dealing with an estimated 2,000 people, it makes it extremely difficult to partially cancel an event.
“It’s not just what it’s like in the afternoon,” he said. “We can’t just partially cancel. The information gets out, and it’s confusing if you have some things canceled and others not. Our staff was here, and we were ready, but it just didn’t work out. We worked diligently until the rain started coming in at 7:15 and had to call it shortly thereafter.”
Walker said ETC, the sponsor for opening day, was preparing to bring inflatables to the site and, with expected attendance at over 2,000 people, a call had to be made.
“We were looking at radar, and there were all kinds of storms on the other side of Calhoun that obviously petered out and didn’t make it here. As soon as I called it, the weather turned out great later that day,” Walker said. “It makes my hair gray when I have to call something like this, because it affects so many people.”
Opening day is scheduled for this Saturday, April 19 at 10 a.m. All games that were scheduled for last weekend will be played this Saturday at the same time.