The Marshall County Bicentennial Committee says they are waiting to finalize applications for torch bearers.
Indiana celebrates its bicentennial this year with a torch being carried through each county in the state. The bicentennial torch will travel through Marshall County in early October.
So far, Bicentennial Committee Co-Chair Linda Rippy says there have been quite a few applications.
“We’ve gotten some really really good ones,” says Rippy. “It’s going to be a tough one to make those decisions because so many of them have been submitted. All deserve something, but we have to keep it down to 20.”
The state recommended that Marshall County designate 20 torchbearers. Applications for the honor are being accepted until the end of this month.
The second part of the equation involves finalizing the route through Marshall County.
Bicentennial committee members say they time themselves while driving the route, but say they intend to run through it several more times. Rippy says that the initial route was the first step, but now they need to determine how much time they need at each stop.
“It was a very rough idea of what we were doing,” says Rippy. “Now we’re going to have to go through it again and get that down to the very minute time frame, and understand that vehicles are only going to drive so many miles per hour between the routes and how much time we’re allowing doing that.”
The torch will pass through the county from 4:00 until 7:00 p.m. on October 4th. Rippy says that time will mean quite a bit to the youth of Marshall County who will not be in school.
The Marshall County Bicentennial Committees next meeting will be in March.
