Council mulls sand volleyball on square

The JOURNAL

    The Washington City Council listened to a request to make a sand volleyball court on Iowa Avenue for Main Street Washington?s ?Celebrate Your Senses? party on Aug. 7. Main Street Washington Executive Director Amy Vetter made the request at the council?s regular meeting in the former library Wednesday night. After some discussion, the council voted to table Main Street?s request and take up the issue at a future meeting.

    Vetter requested to have all of the streets around the square closed for the all-day event, which will take place on a Saturday. She explained that Main Street was asking for 30 tons of sand to be placed on Iowa Avenue for sand volleyball and horseshoe competitions. She explained that the proposal is an effort to attract people who would not otherwise visit Washington?s downtown.

    ?The reason we are doing these aditional events is to bring a different segment of our population into the downtown,? said Vetter. ?We know there are certain demographics ? the young adults 25 to 40 years old ? that don?t typically come downtown to shop or go to the restaurants. That is the group we?re trying to entice to come and see what the downtown has to offer.?

    Vetter also requested the city?s assistance in cleaning up the sand the next day. She said she talked to city maintenance and construction supervisor J.J. Bell and got his approval for the project. She said it would not be much more work than typical snow removal. Vetter also requested that the city keep Iowa Avenue closed through Sunday afternoon. The ecumenical ?Church in the Park? service will be held the following morning, and Vetter said they did not want to disturb the service with loud machinery, which is why they would clean up the sand in the afternoon. 

    Councilwoman Karen Wilson-Johnson said she was worried about how the sand would be contained in the volleyball court. 

    ?My concern is the sand itself,? said Wilson-Johnson. ?I know that in the winter time, the sand scatters. When you?re playing volleyball, you?re running, you?re diving and you?re flying everywhere. You?re not concerned about where the sand would go? I see it being tracked everywhere.?

    ?I think we can contain it,? said Vetter. ?We have a large enough volunteer base that we will clean it up the best we can. If you look at the other events Main Street has done in the past, we always make sure everything is left just the way it was before the event.? 

For the full story, see the June 3 edition of The Washington Evening Journal