WinterFest is now underway!
(Talk of the Town file photo by Jennifer Zartman Romano) 
This bright, snowy day could not provide a more perfect atmosphere for the 2012 Whitley County Chamber of Commerce's Fire & Ice WinterFest that kicked off this morning in downtown Columbia City. Talented ice carvers are already at work around the Whitley County Courthouse lawn, while shoppers visit the vendor booths inside and outside The Clugston on the Square, on Chauncey Street. Everywhere you look, activity abounds and will continue throughout the afternoon.
Above, Matt Swain dons the Ficey costume to spread festival cheer during events downtown this morning.
At right, the several inches of snow, once piled up, have become irrisistible to children at the festival. How often do you come across snow hills several feet tall? Within a short period of time one snow pile at the corner of Van Buren and Chauncey Streets had already been converted into a sledding hill with chutes on the sides.