Ely’s Fourth parade to stand still

ELY - No floats, tractors or old cars are going to be cruising down the streets in Ely this weekend as the community hosts its annual Fourth of July parade.

Instead, the parade entries will stand still while paradegoers walk past them.

Road work has closed part of the regular parade route in Ely, and the Linn County community of 1,800 considered canceling its holiday parade, which typically stretches a mile and lasts about 40 minutes.

But the folks in town, along with the businesses already working on parade entries, didn't like that idea, Ely City Administrator Aaron Anderson said.

'A lot of residents were really disappointed,” said Ely City Council member Stephanie Mehmen. 'It's tradition. We don't want to take that away.”

With that, the brainstorming began.

'We said, ‘What can we do now?'” Mehmen said. 'I thought, ‘If we can't drive around town, why can't the residents come to us?' ... Where there's a will, there's a way.”

A Google search showed a small town in Minnesota had held a standstill parade where residents walked around the floats.

The city got on board with the idea, and the annual parade is set for 6 p.m. Monday.

As usual, no registration is required for those wishing to participate, Anderson said.

The standstill parade starts behind City Hall on the Hoover Trail and continues up Rowley Street. Residents can walk the route and see fire trucks at the fire station and tractors and additional floats on the lawn north of the fire station. The CR Classic Car Club will be on Walker Street.

Anderson said residents won't have a problem strolling down the streets to see the entries.

'We're not going to have the parade police out there with a cattle prod, moving people along,” Anderson said. 'If somebody wants to talk to their best friend for an hour-and-a-half, that's just fine with us.”

The point of the parade is to pull the community together, Mehmen said.

Anderson said one thing that won't change about this year's Fourth is the annual Firefighters Pancake Breakfast.

That event runs from 6:30 a.m. to noon Monday at the Ely Fire Station, 1300 Main St. Cost is $7 in advance and $7.50 at the door for adults, $3 for children ages 5 to 12 and free for kids ages 4 and younger.