Ephraim City councilwoman Elaine Reid, along with the rest of the city council and Mayor Cliff Birrell, will serve free ice cream at the first annual Ephraim City Days on Aug. 14. Ephraim City Days launched to promote Main Street businesses By John Hales Managing editor 7-30-08 EPHRAIM—Add another summer celebration to the calendar: Thursday, Aug. 14 Ephraim will host the First Annual Ephraim City Days. Unlike so many of the community celebrations in Sanpete, including Ephraim’s own Scandinavian Festival, this one doesn’t have much to do with local, state or national heritage. No, Ephraim City Days is all business. “It’s a day to bring people downtown,” says Ephraim Mayor Cliff Birrell. “The idea is to do something for the [Main Street] businesses before school starts. We wanted to stay away from the 4th [of July], and stay away from Pioneer days. We just do Ephraim City days for the businesses.” The mayor says the city council, along with many of the city’s business owners, have been thinking of ways to bolster Main Street patronage. Voila, Ephraim City Days. The day will highlight Ephraim businesses that will set themselves up in something like a 2-block-long sidewalk sale between 100 South and 100 North to promote “a number of people on Main Street that have items for sale,” Birrell said. But Main Street businesses or businesses that only sell goods won’t be the only ones to participate. “People with off-Main Street businesses are welcome to bring a table or canopy,” Birrell said. “We’ll be able to make room for them on Main street someplace so they can participate in this, too.” And service-oriented businesses are welcome to join in as well in ways they see fit. Participation is free for businesses. Though the idea is to have businesses outdoors and the public downtown throughout the day, things will really get going between 6-8 p.m. That’s when, Birrell says, there will be entertainment (such as the Phat Old Professors and Willie the Clown), and members of the city council will serve free ice cream to downtown visitors. Birrell says the city plans to make Ephraim City Days bigger and better in future years. “Next year, for the 140th anniversary of the settlement of Ephraim we want to embellish this, and enhance it with other things that will fit right in with our desire to revitalize Main Street,” he says.