By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Summer does not officially begin until the early morning hours of Sunday, June 21. But everyone knows summer really begins after the Memorial Day holiday celebrated last Monday. During Monday’s Great Bend City Council meeting, City Administrator Logan Burns highlighted a big first week of the unofficial summer. It begins at Dry Lake Brewing on Wednesday, from 4-7 p.m., with Wheatland Electric’s big celebration.
“This week, at a glance, we’ve got a busy one,” he said. “Wheatland Electric will host the ‘Let’s Party Like its 1776’ at Dry Lake Brewing starting at 4. There’s a City Band concert on Thursday starting at 8:15 at the bandshell. The Rocky Mountain Race Week Welcome Party will be at Dry Lake Brewing on Friday from 4-8 p.m. That’s where they can come out and meet the drivers and see their vehicles, then they will return on June 12, back to the SRCA Dragstrip.”
Great Bend Economic Development’s Art and Wine Walk begins at 4 p.m. on Friday in downtown Great Bend. The Great Bend Bat Cats will play at 6 p.m. on June 6 at Al Burns Field, followed by three games next week. The Great Bend Sports Complex will host the USSSA softball tournament Friday through Sunday. Activities continue next Friday, June 12, with the first Summer Square Movie Nights event at Jack Kilby Square. “National Treasure” will begin at 8:30 p.m.
Burns also had some good news to report about the SRCA Dragstrip. Some races last weekend had to be cancelled due to weather. Another weather pattern moved through Earlville, Iowa over the weekend. Those Lucas Oil Tri-State divisional races have been moved to the SRCA Dragstrip on Thursday, July 9, with the previously scheduled divisional races following west of Great Bend that Friday through Sunday.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to host more out-of-state visitors,” Burns said.