Next month, the Virginia Military Institute will be starting what it hopes will become a tradition for Founders Day – a run by the cadets through downtown Lexington.
Lexington City Council voted to approve the event at its meeting last week after it was reviewed by city staff.
The event was first presented to Council at its Sept. 17 meeting by cadets Srijon Bose, Hayden Barrett and Mario Vangeli, who are all officers of the VMI Superintendent Advisory Board.
They requested street closures on Jefferson, Nelson and Main streets for around 45 minutes beginning around 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 11.
The cadets will begin the run on the VMI post and do one lap around the parade grounds before heading down Letcher Avenue to Jefferson Street, running up to Nelson Street where they would turn and head up to Main Street to head down to Letcher Avenue and back up to campus.
The inaugural event will be for cadets, but the plan is to open it up to VMI staff and members of the community in the future.
“We don’t want do just have a one-and-done event,” Vangeli told City Council “We want this to become a tradition.”
Council members raised some concerns about the impact to traffic coming into town on a work morning. Interim Mayor David Sigler suggested the possibility of rolling street closures that would go into effect only after the cadets had left campus in an effort to minimize the impact to people coming into town that morning.
City Manager Tom Carroll suggested tabling the issue until October to allow city staff time to work through the details of the proposed run and ensure it didn’t conflict with other events planned for Veterans Day.
The run was back on the agenda at last Thursday’s meeting for Council’s consideration, with Carroll recommending approval of the event.
He also noted that, though it has not been officially adopted, the city is utilizing the proposed events policy it discussed at a work session in August to implement a fee for the event based on the hours of city police staff required for the street closures and a one-time $150 new event fee to cover a portion of the time city staff spent reviewing and planning for the event.
In total, VMI is being charged $1,234.32 for the event, though that amount could be reduced if VMI police assist with the street closures, reducing the number of LPD officers required for the event.
Carroll added that the event would not conflict with the city’s established Veterans Day event, and that, while there could be some impact on the farmer’s market while the cadets come through downtown, the market’s organizers support the event and “promise to wave and cheer as the cadets pass.”
Prior to making the motion to approve the event, Jesse Lyons commented that “there’s not much more Lexington than cadets running through the street for Veterans Day and Founders Day.” The motion carried in a 5-0 vote.
