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WEST MILFORD - Autumn Lights Festival taking shape
(by David M. Zimmer - Staff Writer - September 24, 2008)
WEST MILFORD - The 14th Annual Autumn Lights Festival promises to again be a community-wide celebration of the culture, recreation and commerce that West Milford has to offer.
The festival, which features the township’s own craftsmen, vendors and artists, will take place on Oct. 11 from 10 a.m. to dusk.
For 2008, the Autumn Lights Festival (ALF) will feature an Oktoberfest theme that will carry over into the celebration with food, music and dancing. And while this may be more suitable for the adults, there will also be carnival games and recreational activities for the children taking place throughout the day.
Local vendors will again be showing their wares to display the best of what West Milford has to offer. The ALF committee will also be on hand to give away Autumn Lights Festival T-shirts, umbrellas and reusable shopping bags.
To promote local businesses, as well as entertain residents and visitors alike, the ALF Treasure Hunt will be back this year. Festival attendees looking for a challenge can register for the second annual race to collect tokens from West Milford business participants.
The grand prize will be a $150 Visa Gift Card. Additionally all registered treasure hunters obtaining at least 20 percent of the business tokens will be entered into a prize drawing. Maps for the treasure hunt sponsored by Century 21 Visions Realty and Marilyn Lichtenberg can be found at westmilford.com.
New for the 2008 festival will be the Ultimate Smile Makeover Contest sponsored by Dr. Peter Brusco of Kinnelon. Attendees 18 and older will be given the chance to break a six-digit code for a dental makeover worth up to $50,000.
Street fair
With an estimated attendance of 5,000 for this year’s festival, the ALF committee, in conjunction with township officials, has decided to make the event a street fair on Union Valley Road from the intersection with Marshall Hill to Bearfort roads.
As a result, the half-mile portion of Union Valley Road between Marshall Hill and Bearfort roads will be closed from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. that Saturday.
Unlike last year, tents and vendors will not utilize the municipal complex for the festival in order to centralize the event. The committee also rejected an offer to expand the event to the fields behind the neighboring Presbyterian Church.
Instead, the ALF committee will allow business that would typically set up booths at the municipal complex, or in the vicinity of their own shopping centers, to have space on the street. The committee adopted this format for the festival in order to eliminate satellite locations, contain pedestrian traffic and limit road closures.
At a September ALF committee meeting, Police Chief Paul Costello said that the closure last year quickly became confusing for motorists as well as local business owners, because traffic was not diverted according to plan.
While the same section of Union Valley Road was closed for last year’s festival, township officials along with the ALF committee are confident they can provide adequate signage to notify the public of this year’s road closure and detours.
The current plan is to divert through-traffic for Union Valley Road down Marshall Hill Road and Lincoln Avenue toward Greenwood Lake, to eventually connect with Greenwood Lake Turnpike. Those looking to reach a location on Union Valley Road will be allowed access from Greenwood Lake Turnpike up to and including the Bearfort Shopping Center parking area.
| Comments (1) |
On October 11, 2008 jenny said:
I think that this fact should have been included somehow: West Milford Celebrates the Autumn Lights Festival because we got a traffic light. How more small town, hillbilly could you get? i mean really.... |
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