By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — If your family is going to need to work off all the food and drink they consumed on Thanksgiving, there’s going to be a run downtown Warsaw on Black Friday.

Travis J. McConnell, with Rogue Warsaw Inc., presented a road closure request for the Downtown Warsaw Turkey Trot on Nov. 29 to the Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety on Friday, Oct. 18.

“We’re wanting to bring back a Turkey Trot to the community here locally. This time, downtown Warsaw. So, Rogue Warsaw and Main Street Warsaw, we’re working together on this. The idea is to help drive traffic on Black Friday downtown and have a good time,” he said.

The road closure start time will be 9:30 a.m., with the road reopen time at 11:30 a.m.

The route will be shorter than the 5K St. Paddy’s Day that took place back in March so it’ll be more family friendly. He said it’s just a little less than a mile.

The loop will start at the City Hall parking lot, go north on Buffalo Street, west on Main Street, south on Miami Street and east on Center Street back to the parking lot.

“The idea would be a partial lane closure all along the route to basically make it more protected since there will be kids and families involved. One lane will be fully open, maybe more than a lane in some areas where there’s parking spaces along the side,” McConnell said.

Councilwoman Diane Quance asked if participants will be charged to participate. McConnell said yes, but they haven’t decided on the cost yet, but it’ll probably be $20 or less. All proceeds will benefit Main Street Warsaw.

Mayor Jeff Grose was initially concerned about them using the City Hall parking lot on a Friday, but Clerk-Treasurer Lynne Christiansen pointed out that it’s the day after Thanksgiving and City Hall will be closed that day.

Quance was concerned about the event possibly negatively affecting downtown merchants on Black Friday.

“This idea came from the Rogue group of downtown merchants and Main Street Warsaw,” McConnell said. “The idea is to try to convince people to stay in Warsaw instead of going to other places.”

Quance said a lot of people also go out of town to run in such events.

The board approved the road closure.