Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 12, 1995                   TAG: 9507120044
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium

TIME RUNNING OUT, AND STILL NO SPONSOR FOR COUNT PULASKI DAY

To date, no organization has taken responsibility for the 17-year-old event, usually held in October, and time to plan is running out.

The result is that Count Pulaski Day could turn into a less ambitious event confined to downtown Pulaski, it could be delayed to provide more time for setting it up, or it could be absorbed by the 2-year-old Depot Day Festival in June.

Members of the Pulaski Business Alliance, who declined to sponsor the event this year, agreed Tuesday that they would like to see different organizations taking the responsibility for different parts of the festival. But even that would require some person or organization to coordinate it all.

Pulaski Mayor Andy Graham had asked the alliance to consider the sponsorship after a number of merchants objected to the idea of combining the Count Pulaski and Depot Day festivals into a single annual event.

But the downtown business people thought they did not have the capabilities, time or expertise to stage the entire festival on their own.

Alliance representatives did most of the organizing for last October's Count Pulaski Day, but the whole job fell on just a few of them and they are not eager to repeat that experience.

The Marketing Committee of the town's new Economic Development Board had discussed the possibility of the Pulaski County High School Band Boosters assuming the sponsorship, Flo Stevenson, a committee member, told the alliance.

But Boosters President Wayne Carpenter said later Tuesday that, while the organization had not met to consider the offer, he had talked to some of its directors and there was not a lot of interest in taking on such a large responsibility.

Count Pulaski Day is customarily held in October, near the anniversary of the death of the Polish Count Casimir Pulaski who died helping in this country's Revolutionary War. That is also the time when the boosters will host a state marching band festival, and it is right in the middle of the band marching season.

"On the other hand, he was born in March," Stevenson said at the Alliance meeting. But March, though less busy, has its own problems with unpredictable winter weather. Still, it may be possible to move the festival to a different month.

Bob Wallace suggested that the Pulaski County Chamber of Commerce be given the responsibility for pulling the festival together. But time is running out to organize a festival by October. "You've got to get something started right away," he said.

The Economic Development Board itself could take on or delegate the responsibility for the festival, some merchants suggested.

But the board is still without a director - though council may appoint one as soon as July 18 - and merchants agreed that a newly hired economic development director would be hard-pressed to organize a major festival that quickly.