A free lunch and an opportunity to purchase dessert at the Strawberry Festival drew hundreds of residents to downtown Shelbyville Friday afternoon.

The City of Shelbyville’s annual Government Day lunch offered free hot dogs, chips and a drink. Mayor Tom DeBaun (photo) manned the grill set up near City Hall on a bright, sunny day.

Many city officials were on hand to talk with residents in a more casual setting, according to DeBaun, who is in the final year of his third term as mayor.

“We started this when Betsy Stephen was mayor many years ago,” said DeBaun while on his break from grilling hot dogs. “It was originally brought forward by what used to be the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns and we just stuck with it. It’s another opportunity to mingle with the public in a relaxed fashion.

“We provide hot dogs which entices people to come down. We always get questions. People always want to see the equipment (on display) and ask various questions and the department heads are available so I can connect them to the person they need to talk to. It’s an opportunity to meet with people and get some feedback or provide some information. And we’ve been doing it for almost 30 years.”

In turn, Government Day ties in with Shelby Senior Services’ annual Strawberry Festival on the west side of the Public Square.

“It’s a nice partnership. We started doing that a few years ago,” said DeBaun. “It’s nice to be able to have that coordination and it increases the number of people who are downtown and it benefits both of us.”

The tents for the Strawberry Festival were set up just west of the refurbished Julius Joseph Fountain. On down W. Washington St., which was closed to traffic at S. Tompkins St., tables and chairs were set up near the tent where city officials were serving lunch.

“The downtown is doing exactly what we said it was going to do,” said DeBaun when asked about staging a downtown event without altering traffic along State Road 9 as it passes through downtown Shelbyville. “It is set up and functioning exactly like I told the public it was going to.”

Get the most recent Shelby County Post headlines delivered to your email. Go to shelbycountypost.com and click on the free daily email signup link at the top of the page.