News

Apple Festival names grand marshal

By Bill Moss, Published: July 9, 2015

The 69th North Carolina Apple Festival has chosen a longtime city public works employee as the grand marshal of the King Apple Parade on Labor Day in a nod to the contribution the city work force makes during the four-day festival.

John H. Rhinehart Jr., known as Big John, will ride in the grand marshal's car during the traditional festival-ending event on Labor Day on Sept. 7.

"For many years, he has assisted the Festival in many ways," the Apple Festival said in a news release. "We also felt that it was important to recognize the entire City Staff for all the work done by all of the departments in the city. Without Mr. Rhinehart and the city staff, we would not be able to operate our community’s largest event."

As property maintenance supervisor, Rhinehart was responsible for the mowing city parks, lawns around city buildings, Oakdale Cemetery and around the Oklawaha Trail. He recently retired from the city job.

“They helped take care of downtown every Friday morning, making sure any weeds were cut and trash was picked up and the parking lots were clean,” said Public Works Director Tom Wooten.

Wooten said he was pleased that the Apple Festival had chosen to honor Rhinehart and the city public works crews. Big John knew the Apple Festival well.

“In any special event that we had downtown where we had to have trash collection where crews worked all weekend he basically managed all that from start to finish,” Wooten said.

Parade entries available

The festival also invited the community to participate in this year’s King Apple Parade. Categories including commercial and non-profit entries. Professional floats are available for lease. Applications to participate in the Parade are available at www.ncapplefestival.org under the Events tab. The cutoff date for entries is Aug. 28. For information, contact the North Carolina Apple Festival at 828-697-4557.