Thursday, December 22, 2011 3:23 pm
(Frankfort, KY -Dec. 13, 2011) - County Judge David Gallagher walked up Capitol Avenue on Tuesday with Economic Development Director Eddie Crittenden. The two were among several West Kentuckians marching or riding in the traditional Inaugural Parade.
Each county in Kentucky is invited to send an entry to the parade. Many counties sent their high school bands. Others sent beauty queens. Hickman, Carlisle and Fulton Counties sent their county judges and economic development specialists.
Judge Greg Pruitt drove a silver sedan topped with silver helium filled balloons. Accompanying Pruitt was wife Norma, who leads Kentucky Grow and Carlisle County Judge Greg Terry.
Bands from Dawson Springs, Marshall County, Reidland, Hopkinsville and Livingston County were among the fifty four bands strutting their stuff up the long parade route from the Kentucky River to the State Capitol. Sixty seven units were in the Parade with over 4,000 participants.
At the end of the route on a specially built reviewing stand, Governor Beshear, First Lady Jane Beshear and other elected officials watched the fifty plus bands and floats pass by for over two hours.
Attendance for the event was sparser than in years past. Theories why abounded. One wag opined that the second inaugural was “a rerun” of Beshe
ar’s first term. Another joked that “whoever is getting a job (with the Beshear administration) has one.”
A long time Frankfort resident said she thought the lack of invitations led to the small crowd. She compared it to a previous administration that chose not to send out invitations to the Inauguration. She remembered that the crowd that year was small, too. When everyone is invited, no one feels invited, she said.
Participants didn’t seem to notice the size of the crowd. It was enough to be in the Capital City on second Tuesday in December.