Asheville News

First it was Fourth of July; now Weaverville has cancelled Firecracker 5K

Jason Sandford April 29, 2009

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

I recently noted that the town of Weaverville had decided to cancel its big Fourth of July celebration. The town, facing tight budget times like everyone else, said it couldn’t afford the thousands it spent on the party and the fireworks.

Now according to the Weaverville Tribune, it appears that that decision has jeopardized the annual Firecracker 5K, a big annual event held as a fund-raiser for the North Buncombe Kiwanas Club. The town said it couldn’t afford to foot the $4,500 bill to do traffic control and such for the event.

The local Kiwanas say they’re frantically exploring other options, including holding the race at North Buncombe High School. So the race hasn’t officially been cancelled. But it sure sounds like it’s in jeopardy.

I ran the event last year — it drew some 400 or 500 runners and is a big holiday race. I hope they can figure something out.

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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7 Comments

A.M. May 1, 2009

Kiwanis group officially decided this morning to have the race with a new North Buncombe route. Maps, applications and more information should be available in the coming weeks.

http://myweaverville.com/2009/05/01/kiwanis-firecracker-5k-still-running/

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Sean April 30, 2009

Maybe they should, maybe they don’t want to. It’s their time off, and if they’re going to be ordered to come in and work, they should be compensated for it. Maybe you should find enough volunteers to fill in for them if it’s that important to you.

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beaverlake April 30, 2009

Good lord, the work the kwaniis do with the dough goes back into the community, perhaps maybe they should volunteer??
http://www.northbuncombekiwanis.org/

"Our goal is to support the North Buncombe area young people and their activities, and to have fun doing it."

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Sean April 30, 2009

Beaverlake, the amount is to pay overtime for police and firefighters. You can’t use on-duty personnel for traffic control for a bunch of people running on the street; if something happens, and they have to leave to go to a call, they would place all of the runners in jeopardy. The Town has to call in off-duty personnel for the traffic control, and therefore has to pay them overtime.

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beaverlake April 29, 2009

as a running in the race the past 4 years, me thinks weaverville wants a piece of the the entry fees – come on 4500 dollars? Really more than half of that are police and firemen who are already on duty in the total. either that or there was a fall out between Weaverville and the kwanis? Why in the hell would they cancel something after 14 years, we need some bad press on this

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Ash April 29, 2009

AM, good to know!

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AM April 29, 2009

I think they’re close to figuring out a North Buncombe route, so probably in less jeopardy this week than last.

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