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Commissioners discussing 4 weeks of downtown entertainment

SALUDA—The City of Saluda is currently considering hosting music and movies at McCreery Park later this summer.

The Saluda Board of Commissioners met Monday night and heard from Johnny Perez, who would provide the entertainment.

Saluda canceled Coon Dog Day this year because of COVID-19 and state restrictions on gatherings but did have music that night instead with social distancing.

Saluda City Manager Jonathan Cannon said since Coon Dog Day was canceled, there have been ideas of having a couple of things this fall, like music and movies in the park, “so people can come into town and social distance and have fun in our town.”

Perez said he did music in the park Saturday and had great traffic, including about 30-40 kids playing in the park and later had a band playing until 10 p.m. He said people said they wanted to have that every Saturday. He suggested a 4-week plan, including nights of movies with a large projector screen. Perez said everyone on Main Street should be able to see the movies. He also said the movies would be rated G or PG and he could bring in lighting.

“There’s a lot of cities that are doing it now,” Perez said. “I would be honored to do anything that y’all would like to do to enhance the city.”

He suggested starting in the middle of August and go through the middle of September.

Cannon suggested using the money the city had in the budget for Coon Dog Day to pay for the entertainment and said he could look at numbers but figures it would cost $3,000-$4,000.

Commissioner Paul Marion said the city may want to limit the number of people the gatherings allow.

Perez said they can limit but people can also sit in their cars in the parking lot and sit all around town apart because they should be able to see the movie from city hall and from the veteran’s park as well.

Commissioners came to a consensus that they are open to the idea of entertainment and will make a decision later.