Looking back at Beef Days, and looking ahead

SOLON — The 50th annual Solon Beef Days celebration packed Main Street Friday, July 21 in a manner not seen before, said City Administrator Cami Rasmussen during her monthly update on city happenings at Solon Senior Dining.
Attendance was, “Off the charts on Friday, probably more people than we’ve ever had on Main Street including RAGBRAI (2016). A lot of people on Main Street.” Saturday, she said, was “probably not quite as busy but we were also competing with the Jones County Fair and the Iowa Speedway (in Newton) had concerts and a race. Still good attendance and dollar-for-dollar almost the same as last year, which was a great year.”
Pat Phillips and Josie Ruzicka were winners of the golf carts, she said adding only about 500 of the 800 raffle tickets were sold, “which was enough to break even on the golf carts.”
Parade route controversy The Beef Days Committee will have their first post-event meeting in September and Rasmussen, a committee member, said she was sure the parade route would be “at the top of the discussion.”
The parade had gone past the Solon Care Center in previous years. Last year however, with the massive 5th St. reconstruction project, the route was altered staying west of Hwy. 1. The same route was utilized this year leading to concerns and complaints about the inability of care center/retirement village residents to enjoy the parade.
Discussion on social media turned vitriolic with blame cast in multiple directions including a theory (disproved by Sheriff Brad Kunkel) that the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office was responsible by refusing to block Hwy. 1 traffic for the parade.
“I don’t believe there was any intentional harm done, I just think we just had a lack of communication, and it was unfortunate that all of that had to happen just two days before the parade,” said Rasmussen. The committee had planned on running the parade route map in the July 13th and 20th editions of the Solon Economist. However, it only appeared the 20th (twice in the same issue), which led little time for making arrangements to bring residents to the parade. An offer for a “mini parade” consisting of possibly up to the first 1/3 of the participants to visit the Retirement Village campus was made, Rasmussen said, but declined. She said it was a “good lesson for all of us on the committee to do better about getting the word out to everybody, and when major decisions are made, letting the community know. There’s 50 people on the committee and everybody does their own little piece, and we’ve got to do a better job of working together and with communicating with the community.”
A new festival?It was suggested by an attendee of Senior Dining that Solon should have a second summer festival similar to Pella’s Tulip Festival, but in honor of the Tiger Lilly, a rather prolific flower in the Solon area.
It was pointed out the flower is orange and black, matching the Solon Spartans. The suggestion was also made the flower be renamed ‘Spartan Lillies.” A report issued earlier this year looking at the downtown area recommended adding more festivals and events to draw people to Solon.
“I like it,” Rasmussen said.