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Newton commissioners decline to approve long Main Street parade; ask organizers to submit shorter route
Summary
Organizers asked to close Main Street from Twelfth Street to Midway Motors for a 30-minute cruise night parade on May 2. Police and staff raised safety and traffic-control concerns; commissioners asked organizers to revise the application for an Eleventh-to-Fifth Street route and return for formal approval.
Organizers of Newton’s annual Cruise Night asked the City Commission to allow a rolling parade on Main Street on May 2 that would start at the high school and travel to Midway Motors, a route organizers estimated could carry roughly 200 vehicles and last about 30 minutes. After extended discussion about traffic, policing and safety, commissioners did not approve the long route and instructed staff and organizers to prepare a revised street-closing application for a shorter route from Eleventh Street to Fifth Street and to submit it to KDOT for review.
The request came from Marion, a Cruise Night organizer, who said the plan was to stage at the high school, have officers block intersections for short rolling closures and allow vehicles to “double up” on Main Street to move the line through more quickly. “I’m expecting 200 vehicles to participate,” Marion said. “There’s gonna be 6 to 8 blocks of cars going down Main Street at one time.”
Police Chief Dunlavy told commissioners the proposed route — almost three miles from the high school to Midway — would be “absolutely not doable” for a sanctioned parade because it would require controlling many intersections and could expose the city to liability if staff attempted to control traffic without sufficient officers. “If we don’t have full control of the entire parade, which we take on all the liability as a city, … we’d have to either have an officer at each one of those traffic lights,” Dunlavy said, adding that the department plans to staff extra officers for Cruise Night regardless of whether a parade is formally authorized.
Commissioners and staff discussed alternatives including a shorter rolling barricade route between Fifth and Eleventh streets, detour plans, and coordination with KDOT (Main Street is K-15). Suzanne, city staff, said a rolling barricade on a shorter route would be “far more manageable” and estimated overtime and public-works support would be required for longer rollouts. Dana Sheplett, representing Walk and Roll Harvey, urged commissioners to consider bicycle safety if the First Street corridor improvements proceed, asking that bike accommodations be included in future designs.
Rather than vote on the long route, commissioners instructed organizers to revise the application to specify streets that are feasible to staff and to return the revised application so the city can seek KDOT approval and finalize traffic-control details. Staff cautioned that throwing candy from moving vehicles is not permitted and that volunteers or club members cannot perform official traffic-control duties due to liability.
The commission did not adopt a parade permit at the meeting. Staff will place the revised street-closing application on a future agenda for a formal action after KDOT coordination.
