The Pleasant Valley Days committee has made the decision that this year’s annual celebration which generally takes place around the fourth of July holiday has been canceled. Castle Country Radio was able to speak with Scofield Mayor Mike Erkkila over the telephone about this year’s cancellation.

“We started in February and that’s kind of late for us, we usually try to start Pleasant Valley Days earlier than February but we’re just kind of slow getting started this year. We always try to have the Fourth of July celebration on the weekend closest to the fourth and this year being the fourth on a Saturday we were unable to get fireworks at all for Saturday,” said Mayor Erkkila. Normally, the fireworks display is done on Saturday night as a closing to the weekend’s festivities.

Getting a late start this year also put a bit of a strain on the budget for the celebration. “Right now, we have $28,000.00 in our Pleasant Valley Days account and it costs us probably $15,000.00 a year just to buy the fireworks, and the food and the things to get ready for Pleasant Valley Days. Before COVID-19 started we were still nervous about being able to break even this year,” explained Mayor Erkkila. The celebration does earn money from its Friday dinner event, Saturday’s Breakfast feast and vendor fees and normally, the committee will get donations from local businesses and private donors but because of the COVID-19 pandemic that has made it a bit difficult.

The committee is throwing around the idea of possibly hosting Pleasant Valley Days during the Labor Day weekend.  “One of the town council members said, maybe Labor Day, well yea, we might can pull off Labor Day because nobody else is going to be shooting fireworks off on Labor Day. That is a big weekend for Scofield. Everybody comes to their cabins, everybody does their last trip up here for their boats and whatever, and then it just turns dead until hunting season basically,” stated Mayor Erkkila. The idea of a Labor Day celebration is not set in stone at this point, the committee is also looking at the possibility of hosting a bigger celebration the following year in July of 2021.