By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
Atmore City Council members gave the green light to several outdoor events scheduled for the upcoming weeks and months, including an August 1 concert by 2024 American Idol runner-up Will Mosely that will be part of Main Street Atmore’s First Thursday shopping event.
The concert, set for 7 p.m. at the Boxcar Willie park, will bring to the city the show’s second finalist. Acapulco Restaurant recently sponsored a concert by Top-5 finisher Triston Harper.
Mosely, who hails from Hazelhurst, Ga., was runner-up to winner Abi Carter in this season’s singing competition. He performed songs from Bon Jovi and Adele during the show, and his YouTube version of Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues has received a lot of online attention.
City Clerk Becca Smith said Main Street Atmore Executive Director Shinora Redmond solicited donations from local businesses to cover the city’s portion of concert costs.
“Our part came up to $2,000, and people are still making donations,” said Smith, who was involved in negotiations with the upcoming singer’s management. “We sought him out for a concert basically because of First Thursday. We were trying to find an event that uses the boxcar site in conjunction with after-hours shopping.”
Council members also approved a request from Bradley Woods for a special events license to hold a remote-control car race on Alto Way on Saturday, August 24, beginning at 9 a.m.
The racecourse will be set up in the area “behind Masland Carpets, on the dead-end road, next to Tiger-Sul,” Woods said, to which Mayor Jim Staff replied, “These folks have been meeting over there for a year or two, and it’s been very peaceful.”
A request from Jeremy and Robin Smith of Deep South Rodeo Productions, to hold a rodeo at an unspecified area of Rivercane, was also approved. More details will be released later on the cowboy competition, tentatively set for October 11-12.
“We would still like to find somebody, a nonprofit, to work with, to try to raise money for them,” Jeremy Smith said. “But we really just want to bring people to town.”
Council members also approved a request from Lakisha Jackson that portions of Union and King streets be blocked off so her business, H&H Royal Hair Bar, could conduct its first customer appreciation event. Jackson said other businesses in the area will participate in the event, which is scheduled to take place from noon until 5 p.m. on November 2, and unspecified healthcare organizations would also be on hand with informational tables.