CONTRIBUTED GRAPHIC

MCBD Ridiculous Day, also known as Bee Ridiculous Day, is back.

This marks the first year for Marshalltown Central Business District Executive Director Danielle Lekin at the helm of the annual downtown event. While it is her first time heading it up, it is not her first experience of Ridiculous Day as she and her son volunteered at a kids booth.

“My first foray into MCBD was Ridiculous Day last year,” Lekin said. “That was 20 days after we moved to town, and was my first awareness of MCBD.”

In addition to navigating the event for the first time, she and the slew of volunteers who organize everything had some additional hurdles to overcome. Lekin added the MCBD Promotions Committee members are the crew who actually spearhead Ridiculous Day.

“My role is to provide support and communication,” she said. “For this particular event, I do not do the heavy lifting. They run the show and they do a great job. While I’m the face [of MCBD], a lot of work happens behind the scenes that I could not do without them. I think it’s important to know it’s not just Danielle. There is a wonderful community of volunteers who make this happen.”

One of the hurdles to jump was the downtown streetscape project, which has led to a new, but temporary, location for Ridiculous Day. Lekin said it will take place Saturday, July 26, at the Cartwright Farmers Market on State Street east of Center, rather than on Main.

“It’s a nice opportunity for us to partner with the Cartwright market,” she said. “Cartwright market is a staple of downtown and has a solid existence down here. It’s an excellent opportunity for us to combine our resources and host an exciting event for the community.”

MCBD representatives reviewed the situation and considered what options were available, and chose the Cartwright area.

“Due to ongoing construction, we were unable to identify a safe and feasible way to host the event on Main Street, reroute the detour and gain full consensus from the businesses to close the street,” Lekin said. “There was just not a safe way to block the street, have kids on the street, etcetera, utilizing Main Street.”

Since MCBD is primarily a volunteer organization, she said the scope of hosting Ridiculous Day on Main was just too big. Lekin stressed that there is no intention to permanently move the event, but did not want to cancel it this year because Ridiculous Day is important to the community of Marshalltown.

In addition to moving the event, she said they also had to scale it down, primarily by involving less vendors. Normally, Ridiculous Day features a vendor fair. However, Lekin added there will be vendors at the Cartwright Farmers Market.

“That was an event they already had planned,” she said. “We just came alongside them and said we would love to do Ridiculous Day with them.”

Even though it will be on State Street, Lekin added that MCBD is still actively supporting events and activities Main Street businesses will host on July 26. For example, there will be sidewalk sales in front of some of the retailers, such as Brown’s Shoe Fit and Stepping Stones Christian Bookstore.

“Tannin is hosting a bloody Mary and mimosa brunch from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. that day,” she said. “McGregors Furniture and Mattress is passing out balloons — fun bee mylar balloons that they’ll be handing out to the first 50 kids to visit the store that day. So, there will still be things going on on Main Street. We encourage everybody to come shop.”

Even though Ridiculous Day is a retail event, she said it is very geared toward families to encourage them to go downtown and have some fun. There will be activities in the Big 8 Tyre Center parking lot, the market area and the grassy lot. Part of Second Avenue will be barricaded, Lekin said. CzechMix Entertainment will provide music. Some fishing will be hosted by Mid-Iowa Community Action. The Marshall County Master Gardeners and Girl Scouts will lead some activities. Also present will be the Marshalltown Fire Department, Animal Rescue League and YMCA of Marshalltown. Plus, there will be games and additional activities.

“MCBD has lots of yard games,” Lekin said. “We have a giant Connect 4 and Jenga. We usually do bubbles and sidewalk chalk. We have lots of family, kids activities.”

As Ridiculous Day draws near, the streetscape project and construction will continue on Main Street. City of Marshalltown Public Works Director Heather Thomas said the project is going well.

“We actually opened the parking lot at the [Orpheum] Welcome Center to the public today,” she said.

The biggest issue the crew has had to deal with is an excess amount of rain. It has delayed a few steps, such as installing drains and placing of pavement.

“We’re waiting for a couple of dry days so we can place the subbase and then move on to paving,” Thomas said. “First we will pave the street itself and then we want to do the two blocks with one pour.”

The rain might have delayed some steps, but she said the Phase 1 scheduled completion day of Aug. 28 has not been moved.

“The contractor is doing everything he can,” Thomas said, and added once it dries, residents can expect to see a lot of work being done in short order.

“I am proud of the contractors and their efforts through the rain,” she said. “They have done a good job of coming back and staying late into the night. I just want to reiterate that all of the downtown businesses are open, and they are excited for the project. There are a lot of parking opportunities nearby, and building front access to the businesses still remains.”

——–

Contact Lana Bradstream

at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or

lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.