Food and drink coming together for RAGBRAI

By Thomas Nelson, tnelson@charlescitypress.com

One thing seems certain for the thousands of bike riders, support staff and others who will descend on Charles City next month — they won’t go hungry.

There are more than 20 vendors approved and ready to be downtown during RAGBRAI, along with vendors in other locations in the community.

The Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa will be spending the night in Charles City Wednesday, July 26, and committees are working hard to make it go smoothly.

“Everything’s coming together,” said Heidi Pavlovich, one of the chairpersons on the RAGBRAI executive committee.

So far there are 22 vendors looking to be placed in the downtown area during the event, she said.

In addition, the school will open its concession stands at Sportsman’s Park and the high school, and St. John’s, First Baptist and Trinity United Methodist churches will be vending at their respective locations.

About half of the vendors are local non-profit organizations and the other half are vendors that follow RAGBRAI across the state, Pavlovich said.

Those 22 are set, but more could be added. The deadline to be approved as a vendor was June 1, but applications are still being accepted with a $100 late fee in addition to the other charges.

“We’ve had a couple people enquire about it,” Pavlovich said of the late entries.

The executive committee encourages groups or businesses that still want to register to do so, but at this point there are no guarantees they will be placed in a requested spot, or even at all if there is no more room, she said.

Vendors like Mr. Pork-Chop are part of a RAGBRAI charter that will come to town and be placed in a spot other than downtown.

Currently there isn’t a map showing where the specific vendors will be setting up. “There’s lots of hoops to jump through,” Pavlovich said.

Pavlovich has worked with the street department, the Charles City Police Department and the city of Charles City to figure out the right spot for vendors.

“Our main focus is on Central Park,” she said.

Main Street and Blunt Street are expected to house the vendors, with Blunt Street having vendors on both sides.

Pavlovich will work with RAGBRAI officials on Tuesday to see if her outline is OK so far, she said.