MALONE -- Making sure the participants of the bicentennial parade get to the bicentennial celebration is becoming a headache for Evon Tarbell.

She wants the June 14 parade through Malone to proceed all the way down Main Street (U.S. Route 11) to Raymond Street and the Franklin County Fairgrounds, where the floats, fire trucks and marchers would flow right through the front and east gates.

But the Malone Village Police Department says she has to disband the parade at Willow Street -- about six blocks west of the front gate.

DETOUR REQUIRED

Tarbell told legislators this week that traffic laws require a detour route be available for traffic flow, and the police say that if the parade were allowed to continue to the Raymond Street intersection, there would be no way for a driver to turn left off Route 11.

"I've argued and argued, but I didn't want to argue too much," she said. "They have bent over backward to help," but the department doesn't see a way for her preferred parade route to work.

To find a compromise, she even went as far as offering to alter the parade route from Main Street to Elm Street then to Raymond Street.

"But we can't do it because of the hospital," she said, referring to the need for emergency traffic to be able to easily reach Alice Hyde Medical Center on Park Street.

Her next step is to speak with members of the Franklin County Traffic Safety Board at their next meeting to see what can be worked out.

FLOAT SPACE

Lack of space to build or store parade floats is also troublesome for the event's chairperson.

Tarbell said there are very few places where a large wagon could be parked and worked on over time during odd hours of the day.

The site would have to be close to the parade route so floats won't be damaged during the trip or held up in busy traffic coming into Malone or driven so slowly on main roads as to become traffic problems.

Tarbell said she approached building owners all over the village to see if any space could be used, including the former Cleyn & Tinker plant and the county's Highway Department garage.

But, Tarbell said, they were eliminated as choices because tools and materials being stored there might be in jeopardy if left unsecured.