From the Village of Owego Mayor’s Desk

By Michael Baratta III, Village of Owego – Mayor —

I would like to take a minute now that the big weekend is behind us to say thank you to the countless people behind the scenes it takes to pull off something like Strawberry Fest.

We welcome thousands and thousands of people into our village without any major hitches. This only happens because of the planning that starts today for next year with an army of amazing volunteers on the Historic Owego Marketplace’s Strawberry Festival Committee.

What goes unnoticed is our DPW working for the weeks ahead to get the village in shape: mowing, weeding, cleaning streets, etc. More than just downtown where you see, remember one of the biggest parades in the Southern Tier sets up in our 2nd Ward. The literal hundreds of barrels and no parking signs that go up and come down. Our police department, which makes our festival safe every single year, works with the festival committee to organize safety plans for every scenario.

Anyone see the bomb dogs checking for any sort of packages left around? Thank you to those agencies that helped and the Southern Tier K9 Association. Thank you to our EMS and Fire Departments (and neighboring departments; without your help, we couldn’t do this), which play a major role in the safety plan; without their help, there is no festival.

Thank you to all the volunteers who pulled this off to welcome people to our village, people who will hopefully see beyond the chaos of the festival and return to our small businesses and shops.

Every year there are things to improve on, and I would say the committee takes those comments seriously and does make noticeable changes.

Now, what was your favorite part if you went? Fireworks, seeing old friends, the insane local talent of the performers, or dunking the fire chiefs and mayor in ice-cold water so many times I lost count?