| WOW!
What a fantastic Our Town celebration the Village of Highland had this
year. The chicken barbeque lived up to all the expectations that
Highland is noted for. People from all over enjoyed the delicious meal
– even people from Illinois, Iowa and Colorado. There were groups from
1 to 20 that devoured the finger-licking-chicken. The comment was heard
that Highland’s cookers really take pride in cooking the chicken with
its lightly-browned crispy skin and succulent moist meat. Over 800
chicken halves were grilled and served with cole-slaw, chips, beans and
a roll. |
| Kastner Pyrotechnics’
fireworks display was absolutely magnificent – the ground
displays, the sky-lighters and especially the finale when the
earth trembled. We were told to expect the unexpected -
and the unexpected was delivered. After the powered parachute
flyover Village President, Neil Michek, presented an
appreciation plaque to Ted Kastner for the years of wonderful
displays. Ted Kastner added extra fireworks to this years
display as Kastner Pyrotechnics was celebrating its 20th
anniversary and the Village of Highland was celebrating its 135th
anniversary as an incorporated village. This was Ted’s last display as
the owner of Kastner Pyrotechnics. Ted & Jeri will still be "part of
the package" with the new owners, at least for the coming year. |
|
We realized our key objective of
having fun, acknowledging that Highland is a great community to live in
and paying tribute to people active in Military Service. It takes
hundreds of people to put on an event like this --- people from the
Village of Highland, people from the Township of Highland, people that
live in neither the Village nor the Township. All join together to make
this a community event and have fun. Although many people were involved
in making this celebration happen, it could not be a success without all
the people who came to celebrate and enjoy some part of this fantastic
day. The comment that “this was like the celebrations we used to have”
was heard many times. Many people made cash donations or gave us their
precious time in helping with all the activities. The Village of
Highland is very appreciative of all donations and is still accepting
donations towards this year’s festivities.
|
| The proceeds from this year’s
Our Town celebration will be applied to park improvements.
Currently the Village Board is looking for the best option to
construct a new chicken pit shelter so the chicken cookers have
a roof overhead. The Village has some funds on hand from
the Allen and Alice Halverson Estate that will be applied to the
new shelter also. |
| Please mark your
calendars for next year’s Our Town celebration – July 25 – the chicken
barbeque are always the fourth Saturday of July. |
