A busy fall awaits visitors to the town of Madisonville. At the town council meeting Wednesday night, reminders of upcoming events were topics of the evening.

The Wooden Boat Festival, celebrating its 2oth anniversary, will take place the weekend of Oct. 10-11. This year bands will perform for the enjoyment of festivalgoers. Two stages will be set up. At the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Maritime Museum bands will include Super Charger, Chris LeBlanc, Blue Meanies, Bottoms Up, Four Unplugged and Rockin Doopsie. By town hall, music will include Coconut Dave, Reed Alleman and Three’s A Crowd.

This year’s poster depicts the building of a boat. The art and skill of boat building is available as a class at the museum and participants actually build a boat. The poster is the work of Karin Eberhardt, M. F. A., who teaches graphic design at SLU in the department of visual arts. The poster will be available at the festival and the museum. The festival benefits the museum and their research.

Dr. Jay Martin, executive director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Maritime Museum and artist Karin Eberhardt unveil the twentieth anniversary commemorative poster for the Madisonville Wooden Boat Festival that benefits the museum. The poster depicts the building of a wooden boat, a project that is available for participants at the museum. (Staff photo by Debbie Glover)

The Art Mart will be returning to the riverfront on Sept. 19 and residents and visitors alike are encouraged to view artwork for sale. Since the town is a designated cultural arts district, no sales tax is charged for original art work.

Carol Peters is trying to organize an educational forum in connection with the Mandeville Tea Party group featuring Rep. John Schroder. Peters said the purpose of the forum would be to educate people on the issues and is not a protest group. Schroder would be speaking about what his office does and the operations of his office.

Peters suggested that it would be a great opportunity to highlight the town council members as well and for the citizens to get to know them better. There will also be an open mike opportunity for those in attendance to ask questions of speakers.

Mayor Peter Gitz said that the town has a policy against using the town hall facilities for events such as this, but the group could use either the riverfront or the ball field’s pavilion and restrooms for the event. Peters will check with town officials to finalize plans and check for availability of the facilities.

In business before the council, it was announced that the surveying portion of the bulkhead is completed and the design and planning stage will begin soon. This stage is expected to take several months.

The Madisonville Police Department has been conducting a survey throughout the town to check on where elderly residents and pets are located so they will have the information for emergency purposes.

Sidewalk repairs are a slow process, but residents along North St. Paul are now on the list for repairs.

A suggestion was made by Susan Reed that the old library building be considered for use as a senior citizen center. Gitz said this may be possible, but estimates are needed on stabilizing the building. He said it needs a lot of work and estimates to get the old building in shape, including the elevator, would be needed.