City Council approves 2018 Trick-or-Treat hours
By Kayleigh Rahn
No tricks but all treats will be in order for Halloween on Wednesday, Oct. 31.
The City Council, during its meeting Tuesday, Oct. 9 (held a day later than normal in observance of Columbus Day) set citywide Trick-or-Treat hours for 5:30-7:30 p.m. Oct. 31. The Tuscola Outlet Shops Trick or Treat will be open from 5-7 p.m. Halloween.
Families will have another opportunity to give a scare in their costumes from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 29 for the Library Halloween Party at the Community Building and Downtown Trick-or-Treat. Various businesses in the downtown area will have their doors open for trick or treaters, while the Community Building trunk or treat and costume party will be in full swing.
The council was led by mayor pro tem Danny Cleland, who took the gavel in Mayor Dan Kleiss’ absence.
In other council business, The OSLAD grant application was submitted to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and an award announcement should be made within six to eight months, according to City Administrator Drew Hoel’s report. The proposed project includes resurfacing the tennis and basketball courts and replacing lighting on the south baseball diamond, the Little League diamond, and the north softball diamond. The final cost estimate was $622,400, which would require the local match to be about $311,200, a portion of which can be met with labor contributions to the project.
Initially, the OSLAD grant was to include only the resurfacing project, which was included in the current budget cycle. After the city learned that many of the light poles surrounding the diamonds were unsafe, city workers removed the five poles that proved to be most dangerous and began work to include the lighting replacement with the OSLAD grant application.
The original thoughts from city officials were hopeful that the OSLAD grant would be awarded in time to complete the lighting replacement project prior to the start of the 2019 high school baseball and softball seasons.
The full story can be found in the Wednesday, Oct. 17 edition of The Tuscola Journal.