TONASKET – Summer Music in the Park, a new event for the Tonasket community, was approved by the Tonasket City Council during their meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 25.

Hosted by the Community Cultural Center, Summer Music in the Park will be three evenings of music in History Park with each evening featuring a different style of music. The event, presented to the council by CCC President Janet Culp and CCC Board Member Jean Pfeifer, will be held on Friday, July 8, Friday July 22 and Friday, Aug. 5 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. for no charge.

“Our idea is to provide to the community of Tonasket an opportunity to enjoy three evenings at History Park where music is provided for listening pleasure,” Pfeifer said. “Members of the community can come to the park with their chairs or blanket along with their own picnic and enjoy the evening. This event will be a family-oriented event.”

She told the council that the CCC decided to do three evenings of music as a way to evaluate the program and the response to it in order to determine if they want to do it again next year. A handout given to the council explained that the CCC’s responsibilities for the event will be to select three musical groups from a variety of musical genres, provide electronic equipment, arrange one or two food concessionaires, seek co-sponsorship with businesses in the community and handling the marketing and advertising of the event.

The responsibilities of the city listed on this handout are to authorize the use of the park for the selected dates, to provide electrical power and to provide port-a-potties for the event.

The CCC will be looking for co-sponsorship with businesses in the community in order to handle the cost of hiring the bands for each evening.

Following this presentation, the council discussed the problem the Tonasket Food Bank is currently facing: finding and securing a new permanent location. In 2010, the food bank served 24,022 people counting multiple visits and 8,188 families, again counting multiple visits.

“We can’t afford any kind of rent and we need a temporary building but we eventually need a permanent building,” Bill Nelson said.

With the food bank only being open for two hours each Thursday, Council Member Julianna Griffin, after doing the math, said the food bank serves 157 families each week in 120 minutes.

The next city council meeting will be on Tuesday, Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. in city hall.