Commission approves street closures for Spooky Time and Chalk Fest; tourism office previews new kiosk

The Nicholasville City Commission on Oct. 14 authorized temporary street closures to host two downtown events and heard a tourism-office update on a new website and an outdoor information kiosk.

Charlotte, representing the tourism office, asked the commission to close Main Street between Oak and Chestnut for "Spooky Time" on Oct. 31 from about 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and to close York Street for Chalk Fest on Oct. 20 with a requested window of roughly 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. "We're asking to see if we can get York Street closed between about 11:30 to 05:30," Charlotte said. Commissioners approved a single motion covering both closures and recorded affirmative roll-call votes.

Charlotte also previewed a new tourism website with an interactive "explore downtown" 360° video and a planned outdoor kiosk that will let visitors pull local dining and attraction information to their phones. She said the kiosk will collect basic analytics to help the office see where visitors come from and what pages they access. Commissioners asked staff to coordinate event timing with downtown churches and businesses to avoid conflicts and to provide contingency plans for parking and brunch services.

Commissioners and staff emphasized logistics—traffic-control coordination with police, potential use of bank or business parking, and short buffer periods to open and close streets—and encouraged the tourism office to produce outreach material and confirm arrangements with affected property owners. Chief Fleming and other staff confirmed support for event safety planning; Main Street will also be closed at 9:30 a.m. Saturday for a separate event as previously announced.

The commission's approvals allow the tourism office to finalize event coordination and proceed with production of the kiosk and website features; staff will continue coordinating parking and traffic contingencies with downtown businesses and event organizers.