The Maple Leaf Festival banner hangs above High Street in downtown Baldwin City, tape marks off the sites of vendor booths on city streets and sidewalks, barricades have been placed on the ground at key intersections ready to be set up early Saturday and signs everywhere in the community’s old town warn of no parking. All of that preparations signals Baldwin City is ready for the third weekend in October and the influx of more than 30,000 visitor Saturday and Sunday to the southern Douglas County community for the annual festival.

More than 400 vendor booths will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. The festival’s parade starts at 11 a.m. Saturday.

With many old-town streets closed and parking banned on others, out-of-town visitors are encouraged to park in outlying parking lots and ride free buses to and from the festival. First Student is providing the buses this year and will have air conditioned buses available.

Parking will be available at two elementary schools on Baldwin City’s western edge, Baldwin Elementary School Primary Center at 500 Lawrence St., and Baldwin Elementary School Intermediate Center at 100 Bullpup Drive. The Primary Center is a short drive south of U.S. Highay 56 on Lincoln Street. The Intermediate Center is visible from the highway at the intersection of Bullpup Drive. Signage will be posted directing motorists to the park-and-ride locations.

Another park-and-ride option, which would be more convenient to those arriving via County Road 1055 or U.S. 56 from the east, is the Baldwin High School parking lot at 415 Eisenhower St. Again, signage will be posted directing motorists to the lot.

Local community and school groups work the parking lots as fundraisers so there will be a nominal fee. The Maple Leaf Festival Committee leaves it to the groups to set the prices, but they generally charge $5 or $10 per day.

Once visitors arrive at the downtown core of the festival, trams will be available to shuffle tired shoppers to more distant booth or activity sites.

Handicapped parking will be available in the 600 and 700 blocks of Grove Street, which is a block north of High Street, and in the parking lot of Baldwin First United Methodist Church, in the 700 block of Grove Street. A very limited number of handicapped spots will be reserved on the 700 block of Indiana Street a block south of High Street.

Festival-goers should also leave their canine friends at home. Companion pets are prohibited on Baldwin City streets impacted by the Maple Leaf Festival, and violators are subject to fines.

The Baldwin City Recreation Commission Board of Directors is calling a timeout in its effort to finance and construct a community center. BCRC Executive Director Steve Friend said he would ask the Baldwin City school board Monday to delay a request to grant the BCRC added mill levy authority to retire debt on the proposed recreational facility.

In September, the school board tabled until October a request to approve 2.75 mills to finance half the proposed $5 million community center’s cost. The move came after three board members voted to deny the request.

Friend said the BCRC would ask for the delay with the hope questions about the state’s school finance situation would be resolved in the next legislative session. School board members were leery of approving the added mill levy for the community center without knowing the consequences of any school funding formula on the district’s mill levy.

In September, school board members also suggested the BCRC explore outside funding to reduce the dependence on property taxes and more fully develop plans for the center’s operational costs. Friend said he was working on both of those suggestions. A consultant has been hired to explore private funding sources and craft a message of the benefits of the community center to share with potential donors and with voters when they are asked to approve a bond issue for the center.

The only vote currently scheduled for the center is the city of Baldwin City’s Feb. 7 referendum on a half-cent sales tax that would pay for the other half of the community center. Friend said he has had conversations with Baldwin City Administrator Glenn Rodden about delaying that referendum until the school board makes a decision on the mill levy portion of the financing plan.