Starboard’s Running of the Bull set June 24

For the first time in the 21-year-long history of the Running of the Bull, the party will be in June.

During a Tuesday morning meeting Feb. 21, a three-person Dewey council unanimously approved a Saturday, June 24 expansion of premises for the Starboard event. For the first 20 years, the champagne-soaked event was held in July.

Commissioner Diane Hanson has been asking Steve Montgomery, Starboard owner, for years to move the event from July to June. She said she was happy with the move. Hanson said the Starboard has done a wonderful job working with the town, cleaning up litter and getting traffic moving. "I hope it works out," she said.

Montgomery said the run will be held the last weekend in June for the next couple of years, but he couldn't say it would remain that way indefinitely. Depending on how the weekend dates fall, he said, he might want to move the event up or back a week.

The Running of the Bull is one of three Starboard events which the town approved for an expansion of premises during the unusually timed and historically short meeting. Mayor Dale Cooke took the blame for the scheduling of the meeting. He said the public hearing wasn't notified in time for the commissioners' regularly scheduled monthly meeting Feb. 11.

Hanson, Cooke and Commissioner Gary Persinger also approved a Saturday, Oct. 7 expansion for Dewey Goes Pink.

Montgomery said that event will start at 11 a.m. instead of noon to help with traffic. He said it's amazing to see how the cancer-awareness-raising event has grown over its decade of existence.

"It just keeps getting bigger, bigger and bigger," he said.

The town also approved a 3-day expansion of premises at the Starboard for the opening weekend of 2017, beginning Friday, March 17.

Before voting in favor, Persinger said, "These are all good events. No discussion here."