The Weissport Recreation Committee, which owns and operates the Redneck festival, issued a statement Tuesday about the cancellation of this year’s festival.

“Fourteen years ago, the committee created this fun-loving, game-filled event to raise funds to improve recreation in a small community with limited resources. Now, heading into our 13th year, we find ourselves at a crossroads.”

Last week, Weissport Mayor Paulette Watson made the decision to cancel what would have been the 13th annual event due to growing concerns over potential safety issues.

A monument in the Weissport park honors soldiers, including those who fought in the Civil War. Borough officials worry it could be damaged because nationwide protests have left many monuments vandalized.

Duane Dellecker, one of the event’s organizers, shared his thoughts on the cancellation of the event.

“I guess what bothers me the most about their argument with the governor’s order, that nothing changed between yellow and green,” Dellecker said. “And no other functions were canceled by the mayor, which clearly shows that it was all about protesters.”

The event is sponsored by the Weissport Recreation Committee and held each Labor Day weekend. Proceeds from the festival benefit the recreational needs of the community.

In the past, that has included new playground equipment, rubber mulch, a new pavilion with picnic tables, a gazebo and permanent electric service throughout the main park in the center of town.

Dellecker said earlier this year, the committee submitted a list of events to Weissport council for approval, which included the Easter Egg Hunt, two yard sales in the park, Halloween trick-or-treat night, Christmas with Santa, Christmas lights in the park and the Redneck Festival. He said the list was approved.

In total, he said the Recreation Committee has raised - directly and by donation - over $75,000 to improve recreation in Weissport.

A list of improvements made to the Franklin Street and Park Street parks in Weissport includes the following:

• Franklin Street park: New playground equipment and tons of crumb rubber mulch. Committee members installed this equipment and mulch, as a state grant was secured and matching funds of $20,000 was supplied by the recreation committee. Most recently, the committee added more crumb rubber and constructed a new picnic pavilion.

• Park Street park: 400 amp underground electric service with two main 200 amp panels and two 100 amp subpanels and a 16-by-24-foot gazebo with vinyl railing. The over $27,000 project was funded by the Redneck Festival.

Hundreds of pounds of grass seed and many cubic yards of mulch have been purchased to seed the park in the spring and fall and protect tree roots.

For many years, the committee paid the electric bill for the new service. Christmas lights ($8,000); Easter and Halloween ($500 annually). Synthetic Trex lumber garbage can surrounds were purchased for $1,200.

“Our committee members have spent countless hours raising funds and selecting and completing projects for the sole benefit of the community of Weissport. When problems arise, we have always sought solutions rather than reasons to cancel.

“For example, when the COVID stuff started just before Easter, we conducted a virtual Easter Egg Hunt and delivered bags of candy to many children in town,” the committee said.

“Yet, every year, there is a kvetching from some of the elected officials. Elected officials who do little if anything to help. We have dealt with complaints of everything from the parking of the food trailer to emptying garbage cans to preventing access to the borough building to hold meetings in the winter. We have repeatedly invited the elected officials to attend meetings to discuss concerns or projects, but to no avail. Too often, we end up reading about their concerns in the newspaper.”

Dellecker said about a month ago, Watson expressed concerns over the event with regards to COVID and protesters.

“With other events scheduled in the park, we realized COVID was not the issue and questioned the mayor. In light of the BLM/Antifa movement going on in our country, their concern was over the Confederate flag and the possibility of protesters damaging statues in the park. At that time, our biggest concern was investing the startup cost for the festival. We explained our financial concerns and plans to deal with protesters as we have done in the past and were told by the mayor that we could proceed.”

As a result of that approval, Dellecker said the committee immediately went to work lining up advertising, vendors, sponsors, security, volunteers and all that goes into creating a successful event.

“Then, more recently, the mayor of the Borough of Weissport notified our committee that the Borough of Weissport was canceling the annual Weissport Redneck Festival. According to the mayor, borough council no longer supported the event.”

Due to the friction over the years, and the latest decision of the elected officials that they “can live without the Redneck Festival,” the Recreation Committee and Redneck Festival Committee have decided to cancel all future activities. However, the committees have planned for one last project, new park benches in the Park Street park.

“The committee has approved spending up to $12,500 on 10 plastic coated steel benches to be installed on concrete pads in this park, one of the most beautiful parks in the area.

“We wish to thank everyone who supported our fundraising efforts. We cannot express how much fun we have had over the years creating and operating this fun-filled, good-hearted festival, yard sales and other events. We look forward to bringing you other events in the future.”