The infamous Athens Halloween celebration, though still three months away, was a topic of concern at Tuesday night's city council meeting.
In a first reading, Deborah Phillips, D-4th ward, introduced three ordinances pertaining to the annual festivities, including one concerning street vending. Phillips proposed shifting back to a flat fee this year, requiring both local and out-of-town vendors to pay the same price for their spots.
Last year, local vendors had to pay the city only 10 percent of their sales, while non-local vendors were charged a flat fee of $300 in addition to the percentage. Phillips said code enforcement officials last year thought the vending fees were just really difficult to follow up. She said the solution for this year is to raise the fee.
Paul Wildeck, owner of Burrito Buggy, a popular Uptown street vendor, was present at the meeting and challenged the city's system for Halloween street vendors.
It seems that permanent Athens vendors are grouped with the opportunistic out-of-town vendors
he said. (But the) regular vendors have a vested interest in the community. (They) employ shop and live here year-round. We want permanent vendors to be treated like every other Athens business.
He proposed charging the out-of-town vendors for the extra costs not covered by the festival's profits, such as the overtime pay for police officers, firefighters and other city workers. Last year's Halloween festival earned the city only around $770 -not even enough to cover the cost of a Port-A-Potty, according to council member Nancy Bain, D-3rd ward.
Wildeck acknowledged the event's negative fiscal effects, and suggested moving to a system of volunteer donations. He said people could be more motivated to donate if they were recognized for their contribution in a local magazine or a newspaper.
Council member Carol Patterson, D-2nd ward, also mentioned the idea of a donation system.
Couldn't we be looking at fees for donations so that the burden is spread more widely than a couple of vendors for $700? she asked. She also suggested creating an event sales tax for the weekend to generate more income.
Phillips said the city might re-activate the Halloween Task Force, which would begin looking down the road to next year
though it would not deal with this year's celebration. She said the task force would investigate the idea of fundraising for Uptown businesses and local distributors, saying that the businesses benefit enormously from the event.
Another of her ordinances proposed suspending the enforcement of noise violations in the downtown area. This basically allows the party to go on
she said.
In other council news, Patterson discussed the Arts/West community facility -located at the former Church of the Nazarene on West State Street -which currently is under renovation. She said a fund-raising event will be held both Friday and Saturday night at the building.
It's a soft opening to let people see what the facility is like now
she said, adding that a grand opening is slated to take place late fall.
Council member Jim Sands, D-at-large, introduced in a first reading an ordinance that plans to add an additional staff position to the Athens streets department. Current maintenance technician Andy Stone, a current maintenance specialist for the department, has been notified of his activation in the Army National Guard. His term is scheduled to begin in August, Sands said, and the department needs to cover his position.
Sands added that Stone's position still will be kept open. The department plans to move one staff position as a maintenance technician to that of a specialist, which is a higher, supervisor-level position. Sands said the department already has a candidate in mind.
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Megan Bruce
