After discussing how Truesdale’s annual community festivals can work in the year of social distancing, city leaders have decided to combine National Night Out and the Railroad Days festival into one event in early October.

National Night Out is an event that brings together members of the community with the law enforcement and emergency responders who serve them.

This will be Truesdale’s second year hosting National Night Out, which is usually scheduled in August. However, officials questioned whether such an event could even happen under the ongoing health risk of COVID-19.

Following the advice of the National Night Out parent organization, Truesdale Mayor Chris Watson said the city has decided to reschedule National Night Out for the first Saturday in October. It will be combined with Railroad Days, Truesdale’s annual celebration of the city’s history as a railroad town.

Watson said neither part of the pairing is likely to match what they would look like in a normal year, but that together they should create an enjoyable community event. Organizers also don’t know what effect COVID-19 restrictions might have in the future.

“We don’t want to prematurely cancel events because of what might happen,” Watson commented. “We want to try to get some normalcy back to the city. ... It’ll be a little different this year than last year. Everything at the end of the day is going to be dependent on what this pandemic is going to entail.”

Organizers already know that Railroad Days won’t have certain attractions, such as live music, that have to be paid for in advance. Watson said the city doesn’t want to risk spending that money when the festival might still be altered or canceled later in the year.

National Night Out, on the other hand, is easier to move because the attractions are police cars, firetruck and ambulance from local agencies.

“We’re trying to push it out far enough to where everything works out. If it’s safe to have an event like that, we’re going to have the event,” Watson said. “If not, it will just be postponed to the following year.”

Alderman Jerry Cannon explained in a Facebook video that this is the second of two years that Truesdale is scheduled to host National Night Out before it rotates to another town in Warren County. He said city leaders were also strongly motivated to continue the new tradition of Railroad Days, which was started in 2017.

“We’re looking for a really great time as we keep the tradition alive with Railroad Days, but still do a really good job with National Night Out,” Cannon commented.

Park development

The combined community festivals will also coincide with new development at Bruer Park, where the events are hosted. Aldermen on May 6 discussed final changes to a site plan for a playground, basketball court, sidewalks and landscaping.

The park development is being partially paid for by a $118,000 state grant, with a total project cost of $236,000.

“We’re going to try our best, within our grant, to get a couple pieces of (playground) equipment,” Cannon said. “We had looked at just one, but the idea of kids of all ages playing on that was a little bit unlikely. We really thought we needed something separate for the younger kids.”

Mayor Watson said he hopes development work will begin by the end of June, with some of it done by the time of the October festivals.

“I would like to see the playground equipment go in first. ... We can probably get in our water fountain, our flagpole, different things like that,” Watson said. “As far as our concrete (sidewalks) going around, fencing, and the basketball court, that will probably hold off until early next year.”