HIGHTSTOWN: Route set for Memorial Day triumph

By Doug Carman, Staff Writer
   HIGHTSTOWN — Organizers are touting nearly 40 groups will join the Hightstown-East Windsor Memorial Day Parade as they closed off registrations Tuesday evening.
   Hightstown Councilman Larry Quattrone, one of the key organizers behind the May 30 parade, is anticipating about 10,000 spectators to flood into downtown by the 9 a.m. kickoff for the 92nd annual parade.
   ”It’s a real big town event,” Mr. Quattrone said. “One more step for Hightstown looking beautiful.”
   The parade will begin at Walter C. Black Elementary School and will proceed east on Stockton Street toward the Civil War monument, where participants will hold the first of three wreath-laying ceremonies and a 21-gun salute.
   Mr. Quattrone said the parade will then turn left on Academy Street, right on Bank Street, then right on Main Street, passing the fire house and stopping at the Hightstown Memorial Library for a second wreath-laying. A third wreath-laying will occur at another monument nearby.
   From there, the parade will continue onto Mercer Street, right onto Academy Street, left onto Morrison Avenue and then right to Dutch Neck Road, ending at the VFW post, where refreshments will be served for visitors. The entire parade is expected to last until about 11:20 a.m.
   Parking will be open until 9 a.m. at all of the municipal parking lots, including the lot near the municipal building. Mr. Quattrone said local banks and businesses typically also lend their parking lots to the parade visitors.
   Mr. Quattrone said Hightstown itself will be mostly closed off during the parade, so those not looking to be at the parade should use State Route 133 and U.S. Route 130 to get around town. Police will have detours posted during the parade, he added.
   The parade will be slightly smaller than last year’s march, though Mr. Quattrone still anticipated five or six floats among the nearly 40 groups participating. Among them is a float resembling a pirate ship and one honoring the Hightstown Memorial Library.
   Last year’s parade drew controversy when a participant from Unidad Latina En Accion NJ’s group used a megaphone to criticize Arizona’s laws requiring police to check on suspects’ immigration statuses, which were passed recently at the time. Mr. Quattrone said he was “trying to keep it non-political” this time around.