Esto prepares for upcoming events

ESTO – The Town of Esto continues to make preparations for their up-coming Two-Toed Tom Festival during their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 7.

The Two-Toed Tom Festival will be held at John Clark Park in Esto on April 14-15. The festival will feature vendors, live music, children’s events and other events. Vendors and musical acts are being sought. For information call Darlene Madden at 850-263-6521 and 263-3201, or email at twotoedtomfest@yahoo.com. or visit the website at twotoedtomfest.com.

Powell announced a reduction of vender fees for the Two-Toed Tom Festival; $50 - $55 for food vendors, $20 - $25 for arts and crafts vendors and $10 - $15 for non-profit vendors.

For more information contact Darlene Madden at 850-263-3201 or Betty Wells at 850-547-0255.

The Two-Toed Tom Committee dissolved recently due to a conflict between members. One of the members who resigned, Lanette Wells, stated that the Town Council had been to stringent on their spending and found it unnecessary to document every purchase to the council.

“As a council we are accountable to every cent spent for our town’s festival and the same is required for our committee members,” said President Danny Powell.

Council approved of closing the Two-Toed Tom Festival account at Bank of Bonifay and reopened in the name of Town of Esto/Two-Toed Tom Festival, with signers Lanette Walls, Betty Mills and Lindsey McClellan deleted from the account and replaced with James Daniels, Darlene Madden and Jody Sellers.

“The reason why we changed it is so that we wouldn’t have a service charge on the account as the Town of Esto,” said Council member Madden. “The names were changed because the previous people have resigned from the committee.”

Town Attorney Jeff Goodman said that the failure of the first committee was, to some extent, the fault of all those involved.

“I can say with much certainty that if this committee is going to rise or fall it will do so together,” said Goodman. “Everyone here has a dog in this fight; everyone here has something invested in this festival because I know that everyone agrees that this festival’s purpose is to serve as an asset to this town and to this community.”

Madden announced that the Two-Toed Tom Festival Pageant will be held the Graceville Civic Center on March 30 and 31 starting at 6:30 p.m. with Teresa Bush directing. Application deadline is March 2. For more information contact Bush at 850-263-4744 and 850-263-3072 or Madden at 850-263-6521 and 263-3201.

Madden thanked the Esto Fire Department for the large part they are playing in preparing and participating in the upcoming events leading up to The Two-Toed Tom Festival as well as participating in the Two-Toed Tom Festival itself.

“Thank you for all that you are doing for the Town of Esto,” said Madden. “You are valued asset and I hope we will always be able to show you the appreciation you deserve.”

Esto Fire Department received a donation from William and Valerie Ford in the amount of $1,000.

“We are very impressed and satisfied with the fire management here,” wrote William Ford. “We are fortunate to have such a fire department in our community. We are enclosing a check for $1,000 to help support your future efforts.”

Fire Chief Charles Corcoran praised those currently volunteering at the fire department.

“All these fine men have stepped up to fill a void,” said Corcoran. “They all said they’d stand up and support this town no matter what. That’s the kind of bunch we have.”

Council approved of Corcoran’s request to use the $1,000 to build the city a much required extrication kit, to be built as he seen fit as long as it didn’t exceed the $1,000 donation.

An extrication kit is a kit used for rescue teams that are frequently called to traffic accidents and often contain two rescue rams and a high-performance cutter. The vehicle extrication kit contains everything that a rescue team needs to help injured persons from vehicular accidents.

Council also approved of the fire department to purchase a commercial saw for clearing debris after a storm for the amount of $325.

Corcoran also announced that the Holmes County EOC is paying for the fire departments new radios because several of their radios have “died of natural causes.”

“They all died of old age,” said Corcoran. “Plus it was required for us to switch to the new radios by the end of this year and it helps that its being funding by the county.”

Betty Wells announced that she was thinking of pulling together a Park Beautification Committee comprised of a team of local citizens to help clean up and beautify John Clark Park.

“That is a wonderful idea Mrs. Wells,” said Powell. “We as citizens should see what we can do to better improve our town and one of our treasured areas is the park.”
Wells asked what is being done to improve Esto’s streets.

“Most of our streets are pretty bad off,” said Wells.

Town Clerk Jody Sellers said that the town has been trying diligently to gain assistance through the Holmes County Board of County Commissioners to improve the streets of Esto and all that has been managed is some temporary patchwork.

“This is a battle that has been fought long and hard for,” said Sellers. “All I can say is that we’re going to keep fighting till we can get something done.”

Powell agreed to look into getting a dog ordinance set up for the Town of Esto due to numerous complaints about local dogs being a nuisance.

Council approved of allowing Mount Zion Church to use the Rec Center free of charge to put on a benefit for Royce Mixon’s widow on Feb. 25 to help her cover funeral expenses.

Council approved of closing out their Equipment Grant account at Peoples Bank of Graceville.

There was a balance of $2,841.18. The sum of $580.09 was deducted for the January payment, which left $2,261.09. This amount was applied to their existing loan, which leaves the balanced owed at $6,156.83 and reduces the amount of payments from 15 to 12, as explained by Powell.

The purchasing of lots fronting Highway 79 from Roger Sasser was tabled until Sasser could be present at a Town Council meeting for discussion.

Bringing Bingo to the Rec Center was also tabled until after the Two-Toed Tom Festival was over.