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| Court Days sees high attendance |
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10/20/2017
By Brianna White
Advocate Staff writer
Downtown revitalization efforts and additions to the downtown scene were widely noticed by out-of-town visitors during this year’s Court Days Oct. 13-16, officials say.
“Many people that had not been to Mt. Sterling in a long time told me that they loved the changes that they saw and many said they wanted to come back when they could stay longer,” Mt. Sterling-Montgomery County Tourism Director Tracy Pearce said.
She added more people were visiting downtown merchants in addition to Court Days vendors during the weekend, and there was more foot traffic on Main and South Maysville streets.
Attendance to the festival was good over the weekend, Pearce said, with Friday and Saturday drawing the biggest crowds, possibly due to the poor weather forecast for Sunday.
“I had many people tell me that they thought Saturday was one of the biggest crowds that they had seen in a very long time at Court Day,” Pearce said.
Mt. Sterling Police Chief David Charles estimated Saturday’s crowd at around 150,000, while Friday saw an above average opening day attendance.
Sunday and Monday attendance was down, likely due to weather conditions, Charles said.
Mt. Sterling Mayor Gary Williamson also noted the high attendance Friday and Saturday and added some vendors sold out of their items by Sunday.
He credited another successful Court Days weekend to the hard work of the public works dept.
“By and large everything went pretty smooth,” Williamson said. “I was really pleased by the job the public works people did. ... Our employees did an outstanding job.”
Charles said there were 335 service calls, which is close to normal; 23 arrest citations; 13 non-injury accidents; and no injury accidents. A complaint led to the arrest of two individuals on drug trafficking charges, see the story below for more details. A third person was arrested on trafficking charges (methamphetamine) in a separate investigation, see page A8 for details.
“The crowds were very enthusiastic and positive,” Charles said. “And our traffic control systems proved effective.”
He added that although traffic was still backed up on I-64 at exit 110, those commuting to Court Days utilized the 101 and 113 exits more.
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