Chill on the Hill coming back

Event that cost Town of Cornwall more than $13,000 gets second chance

The Town of Cornwall is looking at bringing back another Chill on the Hill concert, despite last year’s event costing the town over $13,000.

A motion, read at last Wednesday’s council meeting by Coun. Shane McGuigan proposed putting on the event again for the summer of 2020.

Chill on the Hill, an all-ages event, was originally organized by the town’s recreation department but was poorly attended in 2019.

In the motion, council would seek a “greater window of time for better organization of the event”.

The 2020 event will cost the same as the first one and will be approved as a part of the 2020-2021 operating budget. However, council may approve increases in the budget.

“Well I think it is a concern that the money put out by the town (this) year… you may as well have burned it because it was really not well attended,” said Coun. Jill MacIsaac at the meeting.

“But, what I would like to comment on is just how well organized it was in a very short time. I think given the extra time to promote and to maybe get a headliner it could be more successful. I would like to give it another chance to be more successful.”

After some discussion on possible sources for finding a headliner, Coun. Corey Frizzell voiced his concern with money being spent on a second event.

“There is an old adage Madame Mayor, that says, success has many parents and then failure is an orphan. I am really surprised (that) the failure of ‘Jill on the Hill’ has so many parents here throwing another several thousands of dollars at this event… As was noted, this event lost $13,000.”

Frizzell went on to say that the expectation of 400 sold tickets for the event fell flat. And with the ink still wet on the strategic plan, he said it was curious that council would allocate money and resources that weren’t indicated in that plan.

He said if it was to showcase local talent, then maybe scaling down the size of the event should be something looked at to minimize costs.

Reducing ticket prices, said Frizzell, could also possibly get more people to the event.

“I will not be supporting this motion, I would rather it come back to committee of council or a parks and recreation committee and maybe look at some of these other ideas,” he said.

Cornwall Mayor Minerva McCourt told Frizzell that all his ideas were talked about at a previous committee of council and there are already plans in motion to reframe the Chill on the Hill to reduce costs and showcase the Terry Fox Centre.

When put to a vote, the motion passed 5-1.