While the 48th Annual Trigg County Country Ham Festival did manage several bright spots during the weekend, and has generally been well received in the following weeks, not everything went perfectly for the party.
During last Friday’s gathering of the Trigg County Country Ham Festival Committee recap, Cadiz Police Chief Tyler Thomas confirmed that traffic near the West Cadiz Park ended up being a bit of a cluster — moreso than usual — and that multiple volunteers were called in on favors, and food vouchers, to make the three-way stop a bit more safe.
Thomas said officials with the Kentucky National Guard were contacted this past spring in hopes of getting their help with traffic control, only for those asks to be rebuffed. Furthermore, severe weather and recovery efforts related to Hurricane and Tropical Storm Helene called out units that might otherwise had been available.
Amber Syester, also of the Cadiz Police Department, offered a suggestion.
Thomas added that there was another major problem at the intersection: people crossing between stopped traffic, without receiving the go ahead.
Another concern for next year, and beyond, came from Brenda Price, Cadiz-Trigg Tourism Director Beth Sumner and County Treasurer Lucy Oliver Kyler.
Signage, they said, needs to improve — especially if the “Locals Lane” near the Trigg County Judicial Center is to gain any momentum.
In other Ham Festival news:
— Next year’s 49th Annual will be October 10, 11 and 12.
— Discussions about the parade’s return will begin in December.
— Shuttles, Sumner said, are forever going to be a “hard, unique challenge” for the committee, especially with increasing insurance prices. And she added that there weren’t many people asking for them during the festival’s operation.
— Thomas noted that booth and vendor contracts need to have their “nomenclature updated,” in order to better reflect state laws about the sales of specific, perhaps more controversial items.
— Thomas also suggested the use of number stencils, in order to paint markers on the streets of downtown Cadiz for where booths and vendors will be. Officials, then, would always know where specific locations are, and the mapping of the festival would be “that much easier.”
— Sumner and Thomas also both said that the return of the Ham Festival Canoe Races on Little River, as well as a Ham Festival Golf Tournament, had both been requested by many in the community.
