Kingsport carousel update

KINGSPORT, Tenn. -

Round and round they'll go, but where it winds up nobody seems to know -- that's what they're saying about the community carousel in Kingsport.

The carved animals are coming along and so is the mechanical work, but the carousel could turn up in a different place than originally planned.

A ballerina cat, a red-tailed hawk, a giant buffalo, and all types of carousel horses are in various stages of completion as Kingsport's carousel project heads for the finish line. It's an idea coming to light after six years of work and planning.

"I'm hoping when I finish my ballerina cat, I'm hoping to do a flying pig and a squirrel to go up in the rafters," Valerie Joh, carver and widow of the project founder said.

These carvers are just part of the many volunteers working with the project. They are joined by the mechanically-inclined who are working on the machinery for the carousel and artists painting scenes from the city's history.

"My husband was the one who had the idea that he wanted to start a carousel and I told him when pigs fly. That's why I have to do a flying pig," Valerie says.

Because it's going to happen, but after a recent trip to visit other carousels the group is reconsidering where it should be located.

"One of the major things that we found while we were out looking at these is that most of the carousels that were very successful were the ones that were in park-type setting," carver Joe Pilkenton said.

Originally the plan called for putting it near the Farmers Market downtown, but being in that park-type setting might be where Legion Pool is now located. "It's centrally located in town, its on the parade routes. [It's] a good thing for FunFest, everything happens in that area," Pilkenton says.

Also considering that the ride on one of these characters will only last around three minutes, the group is considering something else.

"We decided that what we needed to do was to put it in a different setting and maybe have a few other things around it for the kids to have a variety of things to do," Pilkenton added.

But the question may be that after they're done, what will these older kids do with their time?