Council OKs Public Outdoor Movies

FARMINGTON -- City Council members gave the OK last week to allow First Baptist Church on Rheas Mill Road to use the grassy area next to Farmington Public Library to show movies at night.

Waylon Wilhite, a church member, addressed the Council about his proposal to provide a free public showing of family-friendly, faith-based films on a 20-foot inflatable movie screen. Wilhite's first choice was to use Creekside Park for the movies but it was decided the library land would be better because of more parking in the area.

Wilhite said he and other church members would be responsible for movie licensing fees and would set up and clean up the area for each showing. He plans to show movies once a month at first to see how it goes. The church would have portable toilets on site and also plans to sell concessions to help offset some of its costs.

"This will give something for the youth to do on Friday nights that is free," Wilhite told the Council.

His vision is that people would bring their own lawn chairs to watch the movie and it would be like a "giant family cookout."

Wilhite said the movie would start after dark and last up to two hours. If the event proves successful, he said he would be willing to show movies more often or as another idea, have a double feature night, where a movie for children is shown first and then one for youth is shown afterward.

He does not have a date yet for the first movie, possibly in late April.

General News on 04/18/2018