Chitterling lunch may be cut

Besides discussing a key comprehensive plan update, street lights, whether to install a new phone system and even consideration of an appeal of a $45 utility fee assessed against a flight attendant who was out of town, an unusual piece of business looms before the Amherst Town Council this week.

The council must decide if it has the guts to continue paying for a Christmas chitterling luncheon.

Who knew?

The town-sponsored event has boiled over into what may be viewed as an excessive expense to the fiscally conservative council.

“Note that this event has evolved from the Town employee Christmas party into a community activity and that it costs about $1,000 a year,” the council’s agenda states.

Council members could decide to pull the pork from the event — the town has about 30 fulltime and part-time employees — and could opt to limit the number of people eligible to pig out.

Or, they could simply decide that times are just too lean.

The event began when a Town crew first sponsored it sometime before 1992. It formerly was held at the Town shop, but the event recently was moved to the Monroe Ruritan Club.

The dinner was moved “simply because they were having to spend quite a few days cleaning up the shop,” said Mayor Jacob Bailey.

The dinner has been funded through the sales of scrap metals, but for various reasons, funding is less this year, Bailey said.

Bailey believes the council likely will continue the event, which is important to shop employees.

“Those fellas who do the maintenance, they work some weird hours,” Bailey said, and such traditions help their morale. “Pipes just don’t choose to break between 8 and 5 weekdays.”

The Town Council was to meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

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