BY JOSEPH B. NADEAU

WOONSOCKET — The sun made a long and welcome appearance at the 31st edition of Autumnfest helping to draw big crowds to World War II Veterans Memorial State Park for Columbus Day weekend.

 But as city work crews began to dismantle the highlight local festival Tuesday and clean up from the estimated 300,000 people tracking through the park over three days, questions were already surfacing about where Autumnfest will kick off next year.
 The problem facing Autumnfest’s organizers is the same one they faced before this year’s event. Will World War II Veterans Memorial State Park be available to the festival, and if so, in what condition?
 The park was closed by the state this year under Department of Environmental Management budget cuts and DEM Director Michael Sullivan warned last week that the forecast isn’t looking good for a reversal of that status.
 The future for World War II Park is clouded enough for Autumnfest Steering Committee Chairman Robert Phillips to already have started marshaling support to open the park for the 32nd annual Autumnfest and also to get it open and running for the entire summer before the event.
  “I’ve been speaking to our people and working to set up a meeting at the end of the year with the leadership of the House of Representatives,” Phillips said Tuesday. Hopefully Autumnfest representatives, local General Assembly members, and people in the local community will be able to convince the House leaders working on the next state budget that Woonsocket deserves to have a well-groomed, natural location for its annual festival.
“We want to make sure the park opens again and we want to make sure that it will be open all year,” he said.
The need to get to work on the next Autumnfest actually came up before the crowd in the park on Monday evening when Phillips asked during the closing ceremony if the people attending wanted the festival to continue.
 The response was an overwhelming affirmative and Phillips told the participants he was committed to keeping Autumnfest going.
 The fact Autumnfest is as much a product of its annual location as it is the hard work of an army of committed volunteers could be seen on Monday as the large crowds attending the festival’s 10-Division parade made their into the naturally-landscaped urban park. There, they could enjoyed a beautiful afternoon of seeing old friends, eating a variety of local foods and fair specialties, or just sitting in chairs parked front of the main stage while watching local dance groups, music acts and Autumnfest’s well-known entertainers.
 Michael Annarummo, city director of administration and public works, said that all accounts he has received of this year’s Autumnfest indicate “everything went smoothly.”
 “The Autumnfest committee met its obligations and the city has as well,” Annarummo said of the festival’s management and operation this year.
 City workers were busy Tuesday cleaning up any litter left over from the festival and Annarummo said the Autumnfest volunteers were already dismantling the park booths and other fixtures that created the festival venue.
 After the clean-up is completed, Annarummo said many questions about future Autumnfest editions in the park will remain unanswered.
 “Going forward, I don’t think there will be any change in the status of the site,” he said.
 As Autumnfest got under way this year, World War II Park looked very good, Annarummo said, but that fact doesn’t resolve local concerns as to why the park had been left neglected for an entire summer.
 World War II Park, he argued, was the only large park of its size not to have been maintained by the state last year. “It’s a state park and it should be maintained,” Annarummo said.
 The fact that maintenance was always done in the past made holding Autumnfest in the park as the final event of the season as certain as the fact October brings colorful falling leaves there.
 This year’s difficulties in getting the park ready, the clean up of a summer of accumulated trash and graffiti and vandalism to the park’s unattended facilities, also raises the question of where the festival could be held if World War II is not available next year.
 Some have pointed to the River’s Edge Recreational Complex atop the city’s old landfill as one possibility, and Barry Field at the North Smithfield townline has been suggested as another.
 Annarummo, however, doesn’t see the school department opening its doors to Autumnfest as its only student athletic complex and believes River’s Edge Recreational area falls short in the area of parking. The soccer field complex along the Blackstone River also has limitations resulting from the potential for damage to the soccer field turf and the sprinkler system and landfill cap below it, he noted.
 “I really don’t see anywhere else that could be suitable for a festival the size of Autumnfest,” he said. There a possibility the festival could be broken up into scattered sites and located in different areas of the city over the weekend, but in the end that would not be the same event that has been held in one location with everyone attending together, according to Annarummo.
 Roger Picard, the city’s State Senator from Dist. 21 and a former Autumnfest committee member, also doesn’t see many other good locations for the festival other than the one it holds.
 For that reason, Picard said he believes Phillips has the right idea in making an earlier case to keep World War II Park open.
 That fight won’t be new, he said, and pointed out that for years World War II has also been high on the state’s list for potential cost savings and the city and its legislators have often had to fight to get lifeguards at the park for its annual opening in July.
 “We have to keep on doing what we’ve been doing for all these years and go to General Assembly budget committee meetings and explain the need for it,” Picard said.
 “We have to tell the other representatives and senate members how important it is to the kids and seniors in Woonsocket,” he said.
 State Representative Lisa Baldelli-Hunt made that argument this year to get the park opened for Autumnfest and Picard said the same case will also have to be made to keep World War II Park operating next year.
“Next year, we have to do the same thing and at the same time try to get it open for the summer,” he said.
 Phillips said the fact Autumnfest was blessed with three days of good weather and large crowds willing to come to World War II Park for their Columbus Day weekend should help in the effort to keep the festival rolling into the next edition.
 The Steering Committee will be meeting in the coming weeks to close out the books on this year’s Autumnfest and then kick off the effort to plan the next one, he said. The fight to keep World War II Veterans Memorial State Park as the premiere location of Autumnfest will begin not long after, he said.
  There will be some discussion of alternative locations, just in case, he said. But the goal will be to keep Autumnfest where it belongs, according to Phillips.
 “We are going to work very hard to make sure World War Il Park is available to Autumnfest,” he said.