Posted on 04/10/2004 4:31:38 PM PDT by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
Residents of Atkins will be looking for a name for its annual springtime festival after the 13th annual Picklefest takes place May 14-15.
Members of People for a Better Atkins (PBA) voted during its regular meeting April 1 to come up with another name for its annual downtown festival that has featured live entertainment, athletic contests, booths and concessions and gained national attention since the first Picklefest in 1992.
According to PBA president Chuck Colflesh, the organization learned last week through a letter from Dean Foods, based in Green Bay, Wis., that it would not provide pickles for the annual festival as previously promised.
“Sue Berkemeyer got on the telephone, and found out they are retiring the Atkins label and management has changed since they (Dean Foods) agreed to help us with Picklefest every year,” Colflesh said Friday night. “That factory has been sold to someone else, and as a result, they are not honoring our previous arrangement.
“We´re not upset with them, because we kind of felt this would happen sometime down the line. When you have a change in management, these things happen. However, we are going to have some Atkins pickles for Picklefest this year.”
Dean Specialty Foods, an operating division of Dean Foods Co., announced to its employees the morning of Feb. 1, 2002, that its pickle operations would be relocated to sister plants and it would close the Atkins plant, which employed thousands of Arkansas River Valley residents since 1946. The 11th Picklefest went on as scheduled May 17-18 of that year.
Following the announcement of the plant closing and negotiations between Dean Foods president James Greisinger and PBA, Greisinger agreed to pay for the downtown stage at Tommy Gillespie Park and stated in a letter the company would “support Picklefest in 2003 and beyond.”
Berkemeyer, PBA´s vice president, called company representatives and negotiated to get some pickles for this year´s festival, although arrangements had to be made to get the pickles from Oklahoma and Colorado. Colflesh said Wayne Smith Trucking in Morrilton donated a truck to retrieve pickles in Oklahoma, while PBA treasurer Ray McKay and his wife, Mae, traveled to Colorado to pick up Atkins pickles there.
“We will have an abundance of pickles, go out with a bang and save some for our Christmas baskets and other things,” Colflesh said.
While this is the last year the two-day festival in Atkins will be known as Picklefest, plans have been underway for months to make this year´s festival one of the best in its history. Last year´s was one of the worst in the festival´s 13 years as heavy rains and inclement weather throughout the Arkansas River Valley basically shut down Picklefest both days.
“This year, we have a lot more things going on that should really help the festival,” Colflesh explained. “J.L. Austin has done a really good job with our musical entertainment lineup. Elmo Haney, Rene Taylor, Berkemeyer and the rest of the PBA membership has been working hard on the other aspects of the festival. We´re going to have a lot of things going on.”
Included at this year´s festival will be a booth for people to suggest a festival name for next year, Colflesh noted. Following the last Picklefest, PBA will go through the proposed names for next year´s festival and vote on a name for the festival that will not be based on any one company, association or sponsorship.
“We don´t want to really tie it into anything,” said Colflesh. “We don´t want another situation like the one we have just gone through, either. We just want a name that will make our annual festival in Atkins what it has been every year — a good, solid community festival where everyone in the family can come out and have a great time. It´s a lot of fun.
“This is the time of year we really get excited about our festival. It´s getting close to the time when it starts getting hectic, but it´s really going.”
Additional information about the 13th and final Picklefest will be published in coming weeks. Persons interested in obtaining information can call any member of People for a Better Atkins.
Thanks for the laugh!!
I hated losiing a good customer when they shut down the plant. Atkins brand pickles were always the pickles we looked for on the grocery store shelf. Of course I grew up about 40 miles from there and we were in the same conference for school sports.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.