Councilman: Why charge Rotary Club for July 4 parade?
Economic benefit from such events should be enough, Monastra says
POTTSTOWN >> As happens most years about this time of year, Pottstown Borough Council approved the request to close High Street for the Rotary Club’s Fourth of July Parade.
What was different this year, was the discussion that occurred before the vote.
Councilman Andrew Monastra cast an unusual vote — but not because he doesn’t want the parade to happen.
Quite the opposite.
Monastra does not think the borough should charge the $4,241 fee to the Rotary Club to hold the parade.
He argued during Monday’s work session, as he has during previous discussion, that events like the Fourth of July Parade and GoFourth Street Fair, the Red Horse Car Shows and the L’oe Show European Car show last summer bring such an economic benefit to Pottstown that they should not be charged the fees to close the streets.
In addition to a fee for each street closed, and for the placing and removing of the wood barricades, the borough also charges for the services of nine police officers on four hours of overtime; as well as five fire police for three hours of service.
“I was doing some research and according to the Pennsylvania Department of Tourism, day tourists of the type that come into town spend about $133 per person per day. So someone who is bringing 2,000 people into town, 3,000 people to town, do the math. If they’re bringing 2,000, 3,000, you’re talking $266,000 of economic benefit to the borough, per event, and I haven’t seen a showing of why we need the extra police presence. I’m trying to find out why we need that; why we have to charge people who are bringing economic benefit into the town.”
How that economic benefit is distributed in Pottstown is harder to say.
Speaking on the planned street closure for a different event, Gene Dugan, owner of Grumpy’s HandCarved Sandwiches on High Street, told the council this month that paradoxically, while his business benefitted very much from the L’oe Show European Car Show last summer, he cannot seem to make money from the people who attend the monthly Red Horse Motoring Club car shows that occur over the summer.
Monastra acknowledged seeing the cost breakdown for the fees from the March 6 agenda, saying “I did see the numbers on a piece of paper. But I asked if there is a study showing additional calls during those times and I got no answer. So if we are just giving out overtime because somebody wants it, that’s great, but do we need it? Does it have to be that expensive? Do we have to have these things be so expensive when they are bringing so much economic benefit, according to the Pennsylvania Office of Tourism?”
There was no further comment from the council and Monastra cast the only no vote regarding the parade after receiving no answers to his questions.
But this is not the first time his questions have been raised.
Those fees, and whether or not to waive them, have threatened the Pottstown Halloween Parade all the way back to 2012. That year, the borough council ended up waiving the fees so the parade could go on. In 2009, the council waived the fee for the Halloween parade and it cost taxpayers $3,200 in police overtime, despite the $1.2 million budget deficit.
As a result of that, the borough adopted a policy that no event fees would be waived except those for the Memorial Day Parade “as an indication of the borough’s thanks for all who have given their lives in service to their country.”
In 2016, an unpaid bill from the previous year threatened the July Fourth parade which, at the time, was not run by the Rotary Club.
In 2019, the Pottstown Classics Car Club Show left downtown Pottstown specifically citing the fees the borough charged to close the streets for the show, and the requirement to raise its liability insurance coverage from $1 million to $3 million. The show moved to an unused parking lot at the Coventry Mall.
To be clear, the Rotary Club has not made a formal request for the fee for the July 4th parade to be waived, but Monastra has raised the issue several times in regard to the parade and GoFourth street festival and the Red Horse Motoring Club car shows which replaced the Pottstown Classic Car Club shows when they left.
For this year, at least, the Rotary Club will pay the fees to stage the July 4th parade.