SOLDIERS GROVE - There’s going to be a lot going on in the Village of Soldiers Grove with the upcoming Driftless Brewing Company (DBC) grand opening event on Saturday and Sunday, July 20-21, followed by Pulling for Preston on July 27.

Cynthia Olmstead from DBC updated the board about plans for the grand opening event.

“We’re going to block off parts of the parking lot in front of the brewery to make the area safer for foot traffic,” Olmstead told the board. “There will still be parking, including handicap parking close to the building and spillover parking at the American Legion.”

Olmstead said she doesn’t know for sure how many people will attend the event, but is optimistic they’ll have “quite a crowd.” She told the board that it has the potential to turn into an annual event.

“It will be a good weekend for the village with lots of people in town,” Olmstead forecasted. “We didn’t include Solar Meats on the poster, but they may be ready to have a presence at the event as well.”

Pulling for Preston

Discussion of the Pulling for Preston event occupied the most amount of time at the meeting. Paul Nicholson, who chaired the meeting in the absence of Soldiers Grove Village President Steve George, reported on a conversation he had with Guy Nelson about the event.

“Pulling for Preston LLC can’t get liability insurance, so the event will be called Pulling for Preston sponsored by Country Gardens,” Nicholson said. 

A bigger issue arose in a discussion about the event advertisement, which announced that there would be a softball tournament and free camping.

“Basically Pulling for Preston will be using the whole park for their event,” Nicholson reported. “We are asking Guy to pay $600, but he prefers to pay only for campsites that are used on Saturday.”

Trustee Vicki Campbell pointed out that Nelson had paid more than $600 to hold the event at the Crawford County Fairgrounds in 2018, and the village pays for police protection. Nicholson reported that Nelson had previously agreed to pay the $600.

The board voted to ask Nelson to pay the Village of Soldiers Grove $600 to rent the park for the Pulling for Preston event.

Nicholson also reported that he had asked Nelson to call Soldiers Grove Fire Chief Roger Olson about securing water to wet down his track. Olson reported that he had heard nothing about it to date. Campbell specified that the village would not pay for billable hours to provide the water. 

It was also noted that Nelson would need to contact the Crawford County Highway Department to block off a part of County C for the event.

Additionally, the board voted to hire police protection for the event in the amount of one officer for a total of eight hours, and to approve a beer-only picnic license for the event.

In other business

In other business the village board:

• voted to purchase a new LED light bar for Pumper #1 for $1,674;

• voted to pay the bill to participate in the Crawford County Clean Sweep;

• heard that a shaft on the digester at the sewer plant was replaced;

• heard that everyone notified by the village to clean up their properties has been in contact with Tammy;

• decided to conduct interviews with the two candidates for part-time seasonal work;