Raines calls chamber’s requirements “strict”

In the next couple of weeks Paul Raines says he and his group will meet to decide whether to accept the Greater Walhalla Area Chamber of Commerce’s conditions for staging “Week of Christmas” events on the Green, at Main and Catherine streets. A February 27 letter from the chamber gives Raines the go-ahead, provided there is liability insurance and other conditions are met. But Raines said it was a blow to him to be required for liability coverage in the amount of $1 million. Though the Green is privately-owned, the chamber decides how the property is used for community events, and Raines had been hoping his plans for a mass choir singing Christmas hymns would be approved without financial obligations for his group which, he says, has no money.