(6/1) Musical entertainment has returned to Hamiltonban this year, but with a little less COVID protocol in force.
The annual event, ‘Music in the Park,’ is held annually at the Hamiltonban Community Park, located off Bullfrog Road, this year on the third Sunday(s) of June, July and August from 6 until 8 p.m.
Among the groups that will be performing are: the River Rhythm Ramblers, with Faith Noel (June 20); Cumberland Shakedown, with Tom Malik (July 18); and Kaptan Zaplan and Friends (August 22).
Hamiltonban Township Supervisor Coleen Reamer said that, being that the event is all outdoors, there are no planned COVID-related protocols beyond requesting that attendees respect social-distancing.
A number of events in the region, from carnivals to community-wide festivals, have announced they will resume - as the result of declining COVID case-numbers and the gradual relaxation of protocols.
Reamer said this represents the fourth year that the event will have been held. Even the pandemic, which put a halt to social events across the nation, failed to stop last year’s ‘Music in the Park,’ although out door COVID protocols were strictly followed.
The annual event was conceived by the Hamiltonban Township and Fairfield Borough Joint Parks and Recreation Commission "as a way to gain interest in our park and to let people know it is there," the supervisor stated.
The park was established as a joint-effort between Hamiltonban Township and Fairfield Borough. According to The Gettysburg Times, the park came precariously close to being named Bullfrog Park in 2017 when the joint commission held a public competition to name the park. But by the close of the competition, Hamiltonban Community Park prevailed.
Reamer stated that joint commission member Robert Olyphant provides the technical equipage to hold the events, noting that Olyphant, who owned his own sound company at one point, "volunteers his time and equipment so that the musicians do not need to arrange for sound equipment."
The supervisor also credited Fairfield Borough Secretary Susan Wagle and her husband, the late-Dane Wagle, who "were huge supporters of getting the ‘Music in the Park’ started along with John Strahle (the current joint-commission president)," along with the late-Homer "Bo" Hek, an accomplished local rock and roll and blues guitarist. "With their connections to people and musicians in the area, they began the summer series four years ago," she noted.
The joint commission presently consists of John Strahler, chairman, Matthew Inskip, secretary, Robert Olyphant, treasurer, Teresa Scripture, and Fairfield Borough representatives Pasquale Pileggi.
