There’s conflict over a 50-year Pierce County parade. Is the event at risk?
The annual Wilkeson Days parade has used the same route for 50 years. Several weeks out, organizers say their permit hasn’t been approved for year 51.
Wilkeson Booster Club president Kiarra Pipkin told The News Tribune Thursday that the club applied for a permit through the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) April 2, as has been done before, so that state Route 165 in the area could be closed for the duration of the parade happening July 25. The permit has not yet been approved, she said.
The annual festival celebrates the town’s railroad and coal mining history, according to the Visit Tacoma Pierce County website.
The parade starts at Railroad Avenue next to the Wilkeson Town Hall, Pipkin said. It ends at Brierhill Boulevard and state Route 165. State Route 165 is the main road through downtown, which is where the parade happens. The parade typically takes roughly 20 minutes, according to Pipkin.
She said a WSDOT representative told the club this week that they would need to find an alternate route to run the parade or hire someone to handle traffic control for the parade. Pipkin said the representative told them the reason for this was because they had gotten too many complaints about traffic and road closures in the past.
The News Tribune reached out to WSDOT to confirm this information.
“We did receive complaints about the road closure. Our permitting staff have been able to work through those concerns through conversations with event organizers and the current mayor,” WSDOT spokesperson Cara Mitchell told The News Tribune via email Thursday.
Mitchell said that WSDOT is still allowing the booster club and town to use SR 165 for the parade, but she said the logistics might be different this year.
“We are in conversation with Wilkeson Mayor Travis Waldher, and the Wilkeson Booster Club, organizers of the event, in using an alternative traffic control plan and outreach strategy for this event that may differ from prior years,” she wrote.
Waldher told The News Tribune in a phone call Thursday that he spoke to the WSDOT employee who initially responded to the permit application for the parade. He said the response he got was to create a detailed plan about how they will notify people the road would be closed for a certain amount of time for the parade.
“When the DOT employee called me she immediately went to (using a notification system),” he said.
Waldher said the plan that has been written up and sent to WSDOT would be to notify residents and people in the surrounding area that the parade is happening July 25 at 11 a.m. and that the roadway will be shut down for a short period of time. Posters will be put up and mailers would get sent out in Wilkeson, Carbonado and Burnett informing people about the parade and road closure. There will be a sandwich board in front of town hall along the side of the road also letting people know about the closure.
He said that one week before the event, Pipkin will put up metal signs on either side of town which say that the roadway will be closed for the parade and the time it happens.
Waldher said one option the WSDOT employee he spoke to mentioned for the parade was hiring potential flaggers to help drivers navigate around the event.
Pipkin told The News Tribune that the club can not afford to hire traffic control flaggers.
The written plan has been sent to WSDOT for approval, according to Waldher. They are now waiting for a response, potentially Monday.
“I expect a phone call Monday that everything should be good to go,” he said.
He said an alternate parade route could be through Carbonado, using a private road called A P Tubbs Road. He said he explained to a WSDOT employee that he did not consider that to be a good solution because the detour would take more time. He would also have to get approval from that community, and coordinate with the Buckley Police Department or fire department, he said.
Waldher said he is hoping that WSDOT will come back to them and say to not worry about using an alternate route.
Pipkin said she is hopeful they will have a solution, but concerned. “As it looks right now it likely will be canceled,” she said.
Pipkin said the parade is a family event. It’s also not just Wilkeson residents who watch the parade, but residents who live in surrounding areas such as Carbonado and Buckley.
“My hope is that (WSDOT) will at least see the parade takes 20 to 25 minutes and issue the permit,” Pipkin said. “I really don’t know what else we can get from them. I can rewrite everything we’ve written and beg and plead. The biggest hope is we will have the parade.”
