Town plans for annual event

Published 10:33 am Wednesday, March 26, 2008

By Adam Smith

The North Jefferson News



Officials in the Town of Brookside and the Five Mile Creek Greenway Partnership are busy preparing for this year’s Brookside Greenway Festival.

Last year’s festival brought an estimated 2,000 visitors to Brookside, located west of Gardendale. It also raised about $10,000 in funds to be used for Five Mile Creek Greenway improvements in the town. The festival, to be held at Bensko Park, is free of charge.

Five Mile Creek Greenway Partnership Coordinator Francesca Gross said she had learned much about organizing a festival after last year’s inaugural event. This year’s festival will include some of the same events as last year, but Gross said many changes had been made to the festival’s infrastructure.

“Last year we learned a lot because none of us had done a festival before,” Gross said.

She said this year’s festival will include more food and improvements to traffic and parking. There will be more traffic guards and there will also be a special parking area for those who participate in some of the athletic events.

Other changes include the popular Miss Greenway Pageant which will be broken up into two installments this year. Children ages 2 through Kindergarten will be featured from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Children who are in Kindergarten and older will be featured from 2 to 4 p.m.

“The pageant was unbelievable last year,” she said. “There were 65 little girls who participated and each one of them brought 10 people.”

Gross said the pageant will also be held in a bigger tent, which will allow for more spectators.

Other changes will include new events, like the Russian Wild Boar Duatholon. Mike Bryan, who participated in the 5K run, bicycle road race and mountain bike race at last year’s festival, is organizing the duatholon.

“Francesca [Gross] was amazed that I had done all three events, so they asked me to get involved,” Bryan said.

The USAT-sanctioned [United States of America Triatholon] duatholon will involve particpants running two miles, mountain biking 12 miles and then running two more miles.

Bryan said the Town of Brookside paid the sanctioning fee, allowing participants and course workers to be insured. However, helmets are required.

“It’s going to happen rain or shine,” he said. “We’re going to go through the creek twice, so people are going to get wet and muddy.”

Participants will be required to pay $25 for a pre-registration fee or $35 on the day of the race. Non-USAT members will also be required to pay $10 for a one-day license fee to be a part of the race.

Bryan said while he was excited about the duatholon, he was more excited about the prospects of Brookside’s future.

“It’s going to be a fantasic thing to get this Greenway development,” he said. “It will be wonderful for the community.”

Brookside Mayor Roger McCondichie said there haven’t been a lot of changes to the Five Mile Creek project since last year’s festival, but said the trails are cleaner. He said crews removed privet from the staging area. Additionally, the town’s historic cemetery has also been renovated and now has a protective fence surrounding it.

“I’m pretty excited about it,” McCondichie said of this year’s festival. “I can see this thing really getting big.”

He said the festival gets more of a mixed reaction in the town itself, which has about 1,400 residents. “Sometimes when you live in something, you don’t see the possibilities,” he said.

McCondichie, with help from the Greenway Partnership, has been working to turn Brookside into a premiere outdoors destination. The town, very nearly destroyed by two Five Mile Creek floods in 2003, is now hoping the creek may be its salvation.

Gross credits McCondichie for what rejuventation the town has already experienced. “I’m just really impressed with Roger,” she said. “He works so hard for that little town. I don’t know of any mayor who works as hard as he does.”

Gross said the festival is also a community event. She said many residents who attended the festival last year were from Fultondale and Gardendale, but also had ties to Brookside.

“Anytime I mentioned Brookside, a lot of people had strong connections to it,” she said. “People look at it as a homecoming. They want to come back and see what’s new.”

Other events at this year’s festival will include: a Regions 5K run, Regions Fun Run, Frenchie Negron Classic Metric Century Ride, family canoe rides, live music including Back In Time and Alex Swindle as Elvis, kids train rides and arts and crafts.

Visit www.brooksidealabama.com to find out more. Anyone interested in volunteering for the festival or any of the sports events can contact Gross at 264-8464.

Those interested in the duathlon can contact Bryan at 674-9211 or 965-4301.