Carmel-by-the-Sea commission reviews fall events, lays out volunteer plan for Dec. 5 holiday celebration

Carmel-by-the-Sea’s Community Activities Commission spent the meeting reviewing after-action reports for several fall events and mapping volunteer and safety needs for upcoming holiday programming.

Chair Lehi opened the meeting and asked staff to summarize recent events. Leslie, the commission’s staff lead, reported the tenth annual Pumpkin Roll on Oct. 25 ran smoothly: “we rolled over 800 pumpkins down Ocean Avenue into a green waste provided dumpster,” Leslie said, and staff closed the roll about 1:15 p.m. to clean up and reopen the street. Leslie also thanked volunteers and local groups who helped run events and noted a few logistical items to address next year, including staging and sound.

Commissioners focused much of the discussion on parade logistics and crowd flow after Leslie’s reports. The Oct. 31 Halloween parade had intersections blocked and staffed by public works and police, but officials cited congestion when an unplanned proposal moment briefly halted the…