WESTFIELD – The City Council will vote at its March 20 meeting on a request to grant a waiver from the city’s open container ordinance to allow the sale of beer and wine at an Elm Street block party on May 24.
Westfield Business Improvement Executive Director Maureen Belliveau appeared before the council’s License Committee last night to request the open container wavier for the Elm Street block party associated with the 2nd Annual Run Westfield Flat Fast 5K Road Race slated for May 24.
The BID is organizing the block party that will be held on Elm Street which will be closed to traffic between Franklin and School streets. The event will include entertainment on two stages, near Franklin Street and in front of the former Newberry’s lot.
Belliveau said that seven local restaurants and vendors would be selling food, beer and wine at stands along that section of Elm Street.
Belliveau said that those vendors would have to apply individually to the License Commission for a one-day license to sell alcoholic beverages.
“I’m just applying for the open container wavier,” Belliveau said. “We need the waiver from the open-container ordinance to allow the vendors to sell beer and wine at their booths.”
The inaugural event last year drew a field of 2,000 runners competing for a $30,000 purse.
“The race was beyond what I ever thought,” Run Westfield race organizer Mike Tierney said following that March 30, 2013 event. “The field was incredible. It was just a great experience. To pull this off and have over 2,000 runners in our first year was a wonderful thing.”
Tierney said this morning that he anticipates many more runners would participate in the 2014 race.
“Our goal for this year is in the neighborhood of 3,500 or more runners,” Tierney said. “We will continue to build this race every year.”
Tierney said that the date was changed from March to May because of two reasons.
“One reason is that we’re doing a fitness expo at Westfield State University and the only time we could reserve the (Woodard) athletic facility was after the end of classes,” Tierney said, “We’ve locked that in for the next six years. The other reason is that we want to have a party and the chances of having good weather in May are much greater than in March.”
The License Committee voted 3-0 to give a positive recommendation to the full City Council at the March 20 session.
