Mountain Town won’t be in parade this year

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Homecoming parade organizers initially did not invite one local
business to the parade on Saturday, despite its participation last year.

Jamie Brown, assistant director of Student Life, said Mountain Town
Station Brewing Company and Steakhouse, 506 W. Broadway St., was the
only business not invited back for the parade.

“They distributed alcohol on the float last year and that’s why they
weren’t invited back this year,” she said. “They were asked to stop and
they didn’t. They also had offensive shirts they were handing out.”

Mountain Town owner Jim Holten said the business did not have alcohol on the parade route.

“By no means did we do that,” he said. “I even got checked out by some of the parade staff.”

Participants in Mountain Town’s entry were confronted by a parade
director and asked to stop giving out alcohol, said Owosso senior Adam
Michels, Homecoming parade committee chairperson.

He said another parade official also saw the behavior later in the parade.

Michels said he did not personally witness alcohol use but other Student Life officials did.

“After they were asked to stop and didn’t, that’s when the decision was made (to not invite them this year),” Michels said.

Holten said the business did not receive an invitation to be in the
parade, but didn’t receive notice they could not participate.

“We didn’t get an invitation this year and I thought it was kind of odd,” Holten said.

He said he contacted the Student Life office and was told that the
parade organizers were trying to shorten the parade by including fewer
outside groups.

He also was told that the decision was based on the groups behavior during last year’s parade.

“A couple of things we did last year they didn’t approve of,” Holten said.

Holten said Student Life offered him a spot in the parade after they
were contacted for comment by Central Michigan Life for this article.
Holten said he declined their invitation because it was too late to put
it together.

He said an issue the school had was with the free shirts handed out
by the brewery, which had a mock top 10 list printed on them.

“There’s no doubt we took it to the edge and apparently over the edge for the CMU administration,” he said.

Director of Student Life Tony Voisin said he discussed the situation
with Holten because they had concerns with Mountain Town’s activities
in the parade last year.

He said he was willing to work with the business this year if they
wanted to have an entry, but they decided there wasn’t enough time to
plan for the parade.

“They will probably chat with me over the summer,” Voisin said.
“We’ll talk about what they’ve got in mind and what they’re planning
for next year.”

Holten said he will meet next year with Voisin to discuss having an entry, which he said would follow all of the parade rules.

Voisin said the number of non-CMU entries have been reduced because the parade is growing rapidly.

The parade route was shortened in recent years so traffic only stopped on M-20 once instead of twice, he said.

This year parade officials will try to keep the crowd off the streets to prevent injuries.

“If we have any further problems this year it might be the last year of the parade,” Voisin said.

The parade will include more participants this year and a diverse group of entries, Michels said.

“The parade does not only encourage the students and alumni to come out, but also the community of Mount Pleasant,” he said.

Brown said organizations and businesses have until Friday to register for the parade.

She said student organizations were offered $100 from Student Life to make floats.

This money was provided to encourage participation and increase the
quality of floats, she said, and comes partly from reducing the size of
the Homecoming carnival, which was poorly attended last year.