Russ Bauer speaks about Silver Lake Days during the Silver Lake Town Council meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 10. InkFreeNews photo by Leah Sander.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

SILVER LAKE — A committee is planning to bring back Silver Lake Days for 2024.

At its regular meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 10, the Silver Lake Town Council heard that news from citizen Russ Bauer.

He, Codi Bixler and Sherry Rapp are heading up the group working to bring back the festival, which was last held in 2018.

Bauer said he’s heard from several business owners around town that they want to help and he’s working on getting the support of others.

He also said he checked other area festivals to see when they were being held so Silver Lake Days wouldn’t compete with them.

Tentative plans are to have Silver Lake’s festival on Friday, June 7, and Saturday, June 8.

For tentative festival activities as of now, those include a dunk tank with “special guests,” a motorcycle event aimed at kids, live music, a car, bike and tractor show, and a parade, said Bauer.

The group is working with Metzger Trucking to see if activities can be held in the company’s parking lot, which would help keep main roads from being blocked off except for during the parade, said Bauer.

The council also agreed to pay for insurance for the festival for a few years to help the committee have time to raise funds to pay for it itself.

If anyone is interested in helping with Silver Lake Days, they may contact Bauer at [email protected].

EV Grant

The council also approved allowing Silver Lake Town Marshal Jason McGlennen to work with the Michiana Area Council of Governments to try for an electric vehicle grant.

The town hopes to obtain one police car and one vehicle for the street department if it receives the grant. MACOG is helping Silver Lake apply for the grant for free and the town doesn’t have to match grant funds, said McGlennen.

He said the particular vehicles being considered if Silver Lake gets the grant are a Chevrolet Blazer EV for the police department and a Ford F-150 Lightning truck for the street department.

In other business, the town:

• Agreed to allow McGlennen to work on getting part-time help for the police department.

The council’s next regular meeting is 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 14, at Silver Lake Town Hall.