The 2024 Perry Village Fall Festival got some positive reviews at the most recent meeting of Perry Village Council. This year’s festival took place on Sept. 7, which was less than a week before Village Council’s Sept. 12 meeting. One council member and an audience member both saluted the man who took over in 2024 as the leader of planning and carrying out the festival. Councilman Mike Glover commended Elias Coss for his efforts as chairman of the Fall Festival Steering Committee. Coss also serves as a member of Perry Village Council. “(The festival) was organized like I had never seen it before,” Glover said. “The layout was great.” Glover’s wife, Lee Glover, led off the meeting’s first public comment segment by saying that Coss “did a fabulous job” as festival steering committee chairman. “I know you went above and beyond, and we really appreciate it,” said Lee, addressing Coss directly. “We’ve gotten a lot of good feedback on (the festival), and everything went so smooth and so well.” The Perry Fall Festival takes place each year at Lee Lydic Park on Call Road. This daylong celebration includes fun and entertaining activities for people of all ages; food trucks and trailers; a basket auction; and a fireworks display to conclude the event. Coss said he wanted to extend special thanks to Mike Glover, for running the festival’s parking lot all day; Lee Lydic Park Committee members Lee Glover and Pam Jenkins, for decorating at the festival; Police Chief Steve Williams, for participating in a dunk-tank event at the event; and Police Lt. Mike Collins, for setting up the dunk tank. Admission to the festival is free. However, money is raised leading up to and during the celebration to benefit the Perry Area Joint Recreation District’s youth and senior citizen programs. Funding is generated from sources such as sponsorships, a raffle for gift baskets, 50/50 drawings and all-day ride wristbands for children. Perry Area Joint Recreation District consists of Perry Township, Perry and North Perry villages; and Perry Schools. Although the rec district was still receiving and paying bills for the 2024 festival as of Sept. 12, Coss said he’s optimistic about the event’s financial performance. “We had an outstanding response as far as sponsorships, so I am pretty confident in saying we’ll not be at a deficit this year, like we were last year.” he said. Coss also told council about steps that he had taken to obtain feedback on the festival from people who attended in various capacities. First, Coss said he posted a survey on Facebook which asked people to anonymously express their “true feelings, ideas and recommendations” about the Perry Fall Festival. That survey expired on the evening of Sept. 12. In addition, Coss said he emailed a survey to all of the festival’s vendors, to get their evaluations of the event. Coss also noted that Perry Fall Festival Steering Committee is slated to meet on Sept. 30, and will discuss “the event itself, surveys, financials, what the goals are going to be for next year’s festival, and who’s going to run it.” Eventually, Coss intends to produce a report on the performance of the 2024 Fall Festival, and an outlook for the 2025 event, and share it with government officials from Perry Village and Township, North Perry Village and Perry School District. Coss said he also plans to post a similar festival recap on Facebook, “so that everybody who answered the survey and even those people who didn’t … will have some information on it.”