50th Oktoberfest allowing beer

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WEST ALEXANDRIA — The 50th Annual West Alexandria Kiwanis Oktoberfest will for the first time ever have beer available for purchase.

Mayor Carol Lunsford shared the news during a village council meeting on Monday, Sept. 18.

“Oktoberfest is coming up. For those of you who don’t know it is the Oktoberfest’s 50th anniversary. For those of you who don’t know already — some of you don’t even care — we are having beer this year,” she said. “It took us 50 years.”

The Oktoberfest will be held Saturday, Oct. 14 through Sunday, Oct. 15. As always, the festival will be held at Peace Park.

Mayor Lunsford added, the community garage sales will be held the same weekend (Thursday through Saturday) as well. This allows those in West Alexandria to host a garage sale without a permit.

West Alexandria’s Trick or Treat activity is scheduled for Halloween night, Tuesday, Oct. 31, from 6-7:30 p.m. The annual parade will meet at LCNB Bank at 5:15 p.m. and march uptown.

During his report, West Alexandria Chief of Police Anthony Gasper noted he and Twin Valley Community Schools Superintendent Robert Fischer are in the beginning stages of discussing a School Resource Officer.

“[Fischer] is really interested in, this year again, trying to get a School Resource Officer started in January,” Chief Gasper said. “They would pay half of the money and we would pay half of the money, which would be approximately $5,400 — that is for one year. So it’s not very much a month.”

“I just wanted to throw that out there so you guys can kick it around and see if you can figure out a way that we could get some money to fund that,” he said.

Gasper also asked council’s permission to have an officer help Preble County Outreach in the Sharps out of the Parks program. A member of the outreach organization wants to clean West Alexandria’s park and check for any needles or other drug paraphernalia.

That community member cannot dispose of those items herself, so she would have to have a police officer with her to pick up the items and put them in a sharps container.

Council made a motion to approve this program coming to the village.

In other business:

Bids were opened for a police vehicle which, according to Chief Gasper, is in less than perfect shape. There were no bidders.

Chief Gasper suggested donating the vehicle to MVCTC, but council members explained they could only do that if the item had no value and was no longer needed.

“Let me tell you this,” Gasper said. “It does run, but it has two flat tires, a dead battery, and when you start it up, it is smoking.”

Council decided member Deb Smith would help Chief Gasper in getting a price for scrapping the car.

Council also had to set a special meeting to discuss the compensation of the police chief. That meeting was scheduled for Monday, Sept. 25.

During his report, Village Administrator Chris Day noted the brush pile is mostly cleaned up. He added, the gas company has been doing work which has caused issues — they are trying to get underground work done so the village can get its asphalt repaired.

Council then authorized the purchase of $200 in Halloween candy for the Fire, EMS, and Police Department to hand out during Trick or Treat.

The next regular West Alexandria council meeting will be held on Monday, Oct. 16, at 6 p.m. at West Alexandria EMS Department.

By Kelsey Kimbler

[email protected]

Reach Kelsey Kimbler at 937-683-4061 or on Twitter @KKimbler_RH

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