The Hays City Commission received a request for an additional city-wide parade.  At Thursday’s meeting, the commission was presented with a request for a permit to hold a Halloween parade.  The request was for a parade to be held Friday, November 1st at 7:00 pm.

The request was made by Myrietta Leach and Tammey Walker, both employed by Re/Max Pro who would be sponsoring the event.

The parade would give children an opportunity to wear their costumes more than one night a year.  Leach and Walker pointed out that a costume/Halloween parade is an event that many smaller towns have.  They added that while there are some organizations that offer in-house events, it would be an opportunity for parents not affiliated or familiar with all the groups in Hays to celebrate the holiday with their children.

Commissioners heard from Hays Police Chief Don Scheibler, who said that he was in favor of the event but had concerns about the short time frame to get a parade together for this year.  The Commission echoed those concerns, citing the work that goes into organizing the existing community parades.

While they voiced unanimous support for the idea (though there were concerns about some of the details such as the parade start time and day of the week), the Commission asked that the proposal be brought back to them next year a few months in advance to allow for adequate planning and collaboration.

Mayor Kent Steward added that this would be the first city parade to be sponsored by an individual company rather than the community, and this would be part of the discussion if the proposal is brought before the Commission next year.