Hub Staff
The Port Elgin Business Improvement Area (BIA) received approval from council March 14 for its request to close Green Street between Goderich and Waterloo streets for the BIA’s second annual Easter Petting Zoo at Coulter Parkette, Saturday, March 26 from 10 to 3 p.m.
BIA President Jeff Carver said that they have taken into account comments from last year. “For the BIA last year, it was such a popular event with so many people in attendance that there was some concern, and rightly so, by some parents and council with the road (Green Street) being right next to it, that we should apply for a road closure.
Last year’s petting zoo featured goats, sheep, pigs, and even some photogenic camels, that will be featured again this year.
“I can only assume that it will be very similar to last year, and an exciting event, and last year's attendance was phenomenal, and should be this year,” Carver said of the free event.
The Port Elgin BIA also hopes to run a fundraiser, a Farm to Table Dinner, for the Port Elgin Farmers' Market (running June to August, 2016) that is tentatively scheduled to take place on Friday, August 12 in the Coulter Parkette space.
Carver said that this event, “will put downtown Port Elgin and our Famers' Market on the map.”
“You close down the street and set up a massive table in the middle of the road, and you have people come in for dinner, in the downtown, eating local products and taking advantage of some of our local wineries and breweries, and the money goes back into enhancing the downtown and Farmers' Market," Carver said with enthusiasm.
The BIA has already met with Rosina’s Chef, Randy Felker who will assist with the outdoor dinner, and there have been arrangements made for an outdoor kitchen. They are also hoping to arrange for a guest celebrity chef to participate.
“We have already met with the Health Department and informed the Health Inspector, who has volunteered to be part of the organizing committee. We have reached out to the Alcohol Gaming Commission and it’s one of the only times I've seen a liquor inspector excited. So we're off to the races there,” Carver said.
