Dust off those platform shoes and bust out those polyester bellbottoms for Helper’s July First Friday event called American Disco. This groovy party will kick off at 6:00 pm on Friday, July 5 on Helper’s Historic Main Street and there is sure to be some wild and crazy fun to be had by all ages.
“It’ll kick off around 6:00 pm, we’ll, of course, close Main Street as usual. It will run until 9:00 pm. We’ll have music up and down the street, watermelon eating contest for the kids, barbeque competition among several restaurants – so lots of fun to be had this Friday,” said Mayor Lenise Peterman. There will be prizes awarded for the best disco costume and strut that will be held at the Helper Hub located at 133 South Main. Guests will have the opportunity to visit vendor booths and stroll through the galleries all evening.
Recently, City officials have applied for the Safe Route to School Grant which is offered through the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT). This grant could bring some much-needed repairs and upgrades to the city’s existing swinging bridge. “What they want to do is create safe environments for children to walk or bike to school and the bridge just seemed prime for the opportunity to be repaired. It’s got some old mining belt on top of some wood that is getting older, we’d like to replace the wood, the fencing and the covering so that our kids can safely get from the east and west sides of Helper back and forth going downtown and predominantly to get up to Helper Middle School,” explained Mayor Peterman. The grant has been presented to the Carbon School District who is going to be a sub-sponsor along with Helper City in an effort to get approval for the grant.
Speaking of repairs and upgrades the Carbon School District will be hosting a Public Meeting on July 9 at 7:00 pm at the middle school in regards to possible renovations to the school. “Now Helper Middle School is a WPA Building so it was built in the 1930s and while they have had iterations of upgrades, they’ve never done a really true overhaul of the school. We have about 175 students there; we want to make it a great place where the kids want to be so we’re excited to move that ball forward,” stated Mayor Peterman. Input from the public meeting will help to determine what the public sees as important needs of the community and children that attend the school.
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