By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
OLEAN — Thousands turned out for this year’s StrOlean event and the weather could not have been better.
“It was a wonderful day,” said Adam Jester, who handles advertising and marketing for the Greater Olean Area Chamber of Commerce. “We certainly could not have asked for nicer weather.”
Jester said, “It was a great turnout. We are still taking stock of everything. We’ve sent surveys to vendors.”
Anecdotaly, “Every vendor I spoke with, including brick and mortar locations, said they had a wonderful day of sales.”
While the temperature was in the mid-80s, people did what they had to to keep cool. The pop-up tents along the median in the 100 block of North Union Street provided some shade and there were water bottles everywhere as people tried to stay hydrated. Food trucks did a brisk business.
People paused in front of the Olean Municipal Building mural where Generations sang the oldies. Across East State Street in Lincoln Park, Zet’s Italian Ice also had a steady stream of customers trying to beat the heat.
Jester commented that “the Children’s Area was amazing.” Christ United Methodist partnered with the Greater Olean Area Chamber of Commerce to provide an inflatable obstacle course. There were also horse rides and face painting for kids.
The Olean Fire Department brought its ladder truck that towered over the Children’s Area. Firefighters helped kids with a fire extinguisher that pumped a stream of water as they aimed it at a house with simulated fire coming out of the windows. Each child received a citation for their participation.
“It was a really cool event,” Jester said. “It seems like there was something for everyone.”
There were 70 pop-up tents for arts and crafts and other vendors, community groups and others. Seven food trucks joined StrOlean as did nearly 30 brick and mortar establishments.
Olean Police also had a presence at StrOlean, including maintaining detours. The Department of Public Works used dump trucks to block key intersections.
There was a constant turnover of people — from families with children in strollers to old people in walkers. They came, looked, listened, met friends, ate and left.
“The early assessment is that it would be great to try and do it here again next year,” Jester said.”It looks like a winner. It was a great effort by everybody.”
Christine Pecherzewski, director of events and operations, said Monday her takeaway from this year’s StrOlean was “the community coming together.”
The Chamber partnered with the city to close down two blocks of North Union Street and Laurens Street. Vendors and visitors made the event a success.
“It’s such a wonderful way to see the community come together,” Pecherzewski said. “We’’ find a way to add to it to make StrOlean even bigger next year,” she added.
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