By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
For a number of years now, the City of Bucyrus has charged the Bratwurst Festival for security, sanitation, and other expenses for the three-day event. Mayor Jeff Reser believes that needs to change.
The Health and Safety and Finance committees took on the matter of waiving or reducing the Bratwurst Festival’s expense at Thursday night’s joint committee meeting. Ultimately, neither committee could settle on a definite decision.
Last year, the city charged the Bratwurst Festival committee $16,500 for safety forces, cleaning services, and reimbursing the city for re-routing traffic. In years past, those numbers fluctuated from a low of $11,500 in 2010 to a high of $18,500 in 2012. No fees were assessed in 2009.
As the Bratwurst Festival prepares to celebrate its 49th year, Reser thought it was time for the city to step up to the plate.
“The partnership that I thought was there wasn’t there,” Reser said about the city and the Bratwurst Festival committee, pointing to the lack of transparency between the two groups. “In exchange for some incentives to bring this festival some changes, (we) give the Bratwurst Festival a waiver on the fees that we charge them.”
The festival committee would use those potential funds that would have gone to the city for the festival itself, including gaining 501(c)3 status and possibly breaking even.
Last year, the festival brought in $110,203.50 in income, but had $117,289.38 in expenses, which included the city’s $16,500 fee, the second-largest fee on their books. The largest expense came from booking entertainment at $45,740.
“Since it represents the City of Bucyrus, it’s the number one showcase for the year,” Reser said. “We want to make this a top-notch festival . . . it’s not in our best interest if this organization loses money.”
Larry West, president of the Bratwurst Festival Committee, said they have seen a slight increase in selling vendor spots, though only 14 percent of the spots sold were from local vendors in Crawford County. One out of every 10 vendors was local last year.
“Basically, we’re lucky enough to break even. There’s no way that we can do that (reduce vendor costs) . . . we need the sponsorships, which has drastically gone down,” West added.
Law Director Rob Ratliff and Police Chief Dave Koepke both threw their support behind Reser’s proposal, believing that the city should support the festival that brings in so much money for the community.
“Looking at the big picture, the long picture, those 40 or 50,000 people (visitors) produce income and commerce,” Koepke said. “Quite frankly, I’ve always been a bit suspicious of why doesn’t the city facilitate the event.”
Koepke pointed to the fact that the city does not charge the Graffiti Cruise, the Halloween parade, the fireworks event, or Santa Parade for security or traffic control provided by the local officers, though each event asks for police to be there when they submit their parade permits. He added that the festival has always supported the safety forces when they have had to handle issues that occurred off the festival grounds.
“The festival has done more than its fair share to make this happen for Bucyrus over the decades,” Koepke said.
The festival committee members said the Bratwurst Festival was one of five festivals in the state that had to pay its city to put on the festivities. To the committee’s knowledge, New Washington, Galion, and Crestline do not charge their local festivals to host the events on the city streets. The City of Marion, however, budgets money every year for the Popcorn Festival.
Reser said the General Fund was having a good year, which meant the surplus should be used rather than just sit there. Pulling out the accounts, Reser said that the Safety Forces fund was up $170,000 over the year and the Streets fund was up $194,000 for the year.
“This is not our money. This is the people’s money,” Reser argued. He proposed using 1 percent of the surplus available to reimburse the various departments.
Councilman Bill O’Rourke fought against waiving the charges.
“I didn’t vote for the Safety Forces levy to supply the Bratwurst Festival,” he disputed. He added that the cost to the city last year for the various expenses exceeded what the festival paid. Last year’s total came in at $17,890.
“I voted for the levy as well,” Councilwoman Wanda Sharrock countered. “I think that the people in the community voted for it because we wanted to increase our fire department and our police department to protect us at all times, whether it was the Bratwurst Festival or a regular day.”
The Finance Committee voted to hold off on any decision until the July 7 joint committee meeting in order to have every council member available for discussion.
Health and Safety Committee will not ask for a hearing on a liquor permit transfer request. Koepke had no problems with transferring a liquor license from District Petroleum Products Inc. to Hymiler Bucyrus LLC, located at 600 S. Sandusky St.
The committee also discussed traffic map changes for parking on Nora and Inez streets. Before sending to council with legislation, the changes will first have to be approved by the Traffic Commission.
Public Lands and Buildings will be seeking a resolution that will allow Ratliff to look into seeking eminent domain action at 305 S. Sandusky Ave., a parking lot located between Etter’s Flowers and the Bucyrus Tourism and Visitors Bureau. Councilman Mark Makeever tacked on the stipulation that Ratliff should attempt to obtain the property through back taxes first.
The Finance Committee approved a $20,000 appropriation for the Wastewater Treatment Plant roof. Five Star Commercial Roofing, Inc. quoted a price of $19,800 for a flat two-ply chip roofing system with a 20-year warranty.
Potential appropriations for housing demolitions were once again tabled. The Finance Committee requested that Ratliff provide a list of homes to be demoed with the city’s available $24,000.