Despite a large amount of lake snow, there were still plans to hold the annual Merry Meadville celebration.
In addition to extended business hours downtown, carriage rides at the Market House and an exhibition of ice sculptures, the event also includes a highly anticipated visit from Santa Claus and his celebratory lighting of the Diamond Park Christmas tree.
“It’s still ongoing,” City Manager Maryann Menanno said Thursday afternoon. “We hope that the worst of the snowfall is over and everything has been cleaned enough so that the event can take place tomorrow as planned.”
Menanno said the city's snow plows began working at 3 a.m. Thursday and continued throughout the day, heading out to side streets just after noon after initially focusing on central thoroughfares .
“We expect they will be out for the rest of the day,” she added. “Hopefully they get a little break and then get back to it later this evening or very early tomorrow morning. Obviously the snow fell quite heavily and it was difficult to keep up with, but now that it has eased a bit, we hope we can get back to plowing and keep city streets safe for residents and others travel through.”
Merry Meadville takes place today from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in downtown Meadville
This evening's merriment coincides with the extended hours of many downtown businesses on the first Friday of the month.
The festivities at Diamond Park begin today at 5:30 p.m. with free hot cocoa and cookies. Santa is scheduled to arrive around 6 p.m. and the tree lighting will follow. Visits with children will be held at the Crawford County Historical Society, 869 Diamond Park. The carriage rides depart from the Market House at 5:00 p.m. Admission is $2.