The crowds came out when the heat and humidity backed off.

The joint was jumping this weekend from Friday afternoon (Thurdsay if you had kids at the ride night) right through late Sunday.  On Friday night the car show and a well-attended Rotary Fest brought out the masses.

Farmers Markets continue through the summer on the east side of the train station.

Saturday morning the Farmers Market packed them in.  Casual strollers took advantage of the last days of the historic photo walking tour of downtown.

Lemon Tree is taste-teasing the Farmers Market crowds with samples.

Blistering heat and humidity kept the mid-day Rotary Fest crowds lighter than past Heritage Fests, but attendance picked up as Saturday cooled off.

Less heat + less humidy = more fest-goers.

Sunday morning saw the big car show, a short half-spit of rain, and attendance again weighted to the evening hours, with Fest goers coming specifically to see Micheal Heaton Band and especially Elevation.

Residents in general were very pleased Rotary pulled off a festival this year.  Rotary will be looking for feedback on how they can make it better next year, and when that part of their website gets up we’ll put a link in an update so DGreport readers can help too.

When it's time to go not a minute is wasted as the entire area becomes a hard hat de-construction zone.

The volunteers were a happy group.  By and large most attendees after 6pm understood the need for an entrance fee.  As music stage MC Dave Humphries reminded attendees, Rotary spends half their time raising money and the other half giving it away to support many worthy causes.

Best comment I heard from one gruff-looking 3XL head banger who tipped an extra buck each time he bought drinks: “I know all about Rotary, and if all I gotta do to help is eat some food, have some cold brews and listen to some good music; yeah I can do that.”

The club, which has hosted annual Oktoberfest celebrations and also operated the Heritage Fest Beer Garden for the past five  years, is confident in its ability to pull off Grove Fest, said President Barb Wysocki. The three-day event is scheduled for July 15-18.

“We’ve taken a hard look at this,” Wysocki told the DGreport. “We know the risks involved, but we feel if we run it effectively, we will be able to make a profit.”

Rotary will be responsible for covering all expenses relating to the festival, including those incurred by police, fire, public works and senior village staff. The club is required to pay $25,600 two weeks before the festival and also to furnish another $30,720 in cash or letter of credit to cover any overruns.

When the item was discussed at last week’s workshop meeting, commissioners repeatedly emphasized that all costs associated with the festival will be born by Rotary.

Concerns were also expressed regarding Rotary’s attendance estimate of 25,000, which some commissioners considered too low. If more people come than can be accommodated in the entertainment garden, they will be encouraged to visit local shops and restaurants, Wysocki said. Police will be on hand to help with crowd control.

With public safety its chief concern and responsibility, the village reserves the right to cancel or shutdown the festival at any time. “They want us to execute perfectly,” Wysocki said.

Realizing that crowd control could be an issue, the Rotary purposely conceived GroveFest as a much smaller event than previous village-run festivals. There will be about a dozen amusement rides for all ages, a single stage featuring local bands and other homegrown talent, and an “entertainment garden” that will serve beer and food provided by local restaurants.

“This will be a total community event,” Wysocki said. “There won’t be lots of vendors from other cities or states.”

The site will be the library parking lot and nearby commuter parking lot along the south side of the train tracks. Main and Curtiss streets will remain open.

Wysocki said GroveFest will be marketed only to Downers Grove and neighboring communities in an attempt to keep attendance within bounds. Heritage Fest typically attracted more than 100,000 attendees.

The club plans to recruit and train as many as 200 volunteers to staff the festival, Wysocki said. Members are also carving out an opportunity for up to 20 local non-profit organizations to participate. The groups have in the past relied on Heritage Fest for fundraising.

The council also encouraged Rotary to work with the Downers Grove Arts Council, which also had a festival proposal in the works. The arts council was looking to create an event that would allow local arts groups to recoup some of the financial support lost as a result of the 2010 village budget cuts.

Wysocki said the Rotary and the arts council had discussed working together on a festival, however philosophical differences made the difficult. The arts council wanted to use an events company to produce the festival, while Rotarians wanted to handle it themselves, Wysocki said.

“We respectfully and cordially decided (a partnership) wouldn’t work,” she said.

The arts council submitted its proposal to the village on April 8. Given that it had taken several weeks of discussion to bring the Rotary proposal up to village standards, commissioners decided time is too short to fully vet the arts council’s submission.

Rotary has also made contact with the teen organizers of the “Bring Back the 2010 Downers Grove Heritage Fest” page on Facebook, which has more than 6,000 members.

“We will be looking for volunteers if any of those individuals would like to help out and volunteer for service hours,” Wysocki said.  “We’re going to need people to clean up tables and perform other tasks and we will be reaching out through Facebook.”

Now that the council has approved the proposal, work can swing into high gear with less than three months until opening day. Wysocki said the organization is confident its 44 member professionals — ” a lot of smart people capable of planning and executing events” — are up to the task.

And “we’re crossing our fingers that we have great weather.”

As soon as council whacked funding for Heritage Fest last December there was a resulting hue and cry of DG angst that generated 6,195 FaceBook supporters.  As soon as it was clear Heritage Fest was not going to receive funding, the DG Rotary Club, presided by Barb Wysocki, went to work.  They had cancelled their annual Octoberfest in 2009, and no Heritage Fest meant no money for Rotary charity recipients.  That annually totals tens of thousands of dollars that Rotary donates to dozens of different causes.  With no Heritage Fest, Rotary had no charity fund raising function.  Big problem.

The pressure was on and Tuesday Rotary unveiled for council a Community Events Commission approved proposal for what looks like a hybrid event that might just do the trick: Grove Fest.

Proposed for July 15th through July 18th on west side only of downtown, Downers Rotary Fest would provide a similar variety of features and activities, but on a smaller scale:

• A single music stage focused on local talent instead of more expensive band bookings.
• A beer garden with a larger more extensive food area.
• An area specifically for non-for-profits to fund raise, sell non alcoholic beverages, and have a presence.
• A scaled down selection of carnival rides.

The event would close Forest from the tracks south to Curtiss.  It would use that two block stretch, the library parking lot, and the permit parking lot between Burlington and the tracks.  Main Street, Curtiss Street, all businesses downtown would remain open.

Heritage Fest in happier economic times.

A ton of planning has already been put into this by Rotary, with particular attention paid to plenty of volunteer staffing to help out.  Having professional planners as members helps out.  Projected attendance was pegged at 25,000 for the three day event, which might be low.  The number of Porta-johns is critical, especially if attendance blows past 25K, which might well happen given the lack of other local events and past attendance of Heritage Fest.

Rotary will pay all village costs actually incurred, will pay up front as well as post a Letter of credit for 120% additional.  The village will track all expenses and make sure Rotary pays for all municipal services used, including all police and EMT’s.

Wysocki assured council they can run the event safely and effectively.

HF helped many NFP's.

Their goals are to raise money for Rotary, a lot of which goes back to community.  She felt by doing this event this year it would also help bring the community together in hard times.  She noted that, as Heritage Fests in the past have done, businesses will benefit, restaurants will benefit, and NFP’s will benefit Saturday and Sunday.

Past HF’s have decidedly built business for downtown merchants not only by providing a huge weekend crowd of customers, but also by exposing local businesses to those unaware who they were or where they were located.  The 2009 Community Events Heritage Festival Economic Impact Survey estimated Heritage Fest alone generated over $5 million worth of business for DG businesses.

The Downtown Management Group, Wysocki said, was very supportive when they met putting together the proposal.  Dr. Mark McDonald, D99 Superintendent, again volunteered use of DGS parking for staging and off-site storage.

Regular parking will apply.  Other brother clubs and community volunteers will help.  Scouts and other NFP’s can sell water on Saturday and Sunday.  If more than 20 want to do it Rotary will take applications and do a lottery.  The Farmers Market will be open that Saturday, as the two events are held in different spots and at different times.  Businesses will be open.  A DG police officer and Rotarian will man the RR Crossing on Forest at all times.

There was some concern expressed by council about what if it gets out of control.  I missed if anyone asked how beer sales would be segregated from the rest of the event or if it would be in its own area at all given the smaller venue.

Volunteers will be posted at entrances allowing gates to be closed if it gets too crowded, if too many people show up.  Village Manager Dave Fieldman and Community Events Director Mary Scalzetti will be on-hand so the village can be proactive, if need be, to any problems.

Jim Stahulak of the Downers Grove Arts Council spoke and said his group also has a proposal in for review, and asked if council might wait on approval until staff had time to go over their planned event.  Their usual is a fall event, but they also have a plan in that incorporates more HF-like elements.  The DGAC includes the Music Club, Choral Society, West Towns Chorus, Grove Players Community Theater and New World Repertory Theater.  Leading community advocate Gordon Goodman asked if there might be a more inclusive street fair element that might be brokered between these two groups, to seek synergies that might broaden the scope and appeal to attendees, and help more civic groups with the fund raising aspect that Heritage Fest provided so well.

Council will decide next week how to proceed with the Rotary Club proposal.  Keith Hoffman of Rotary has asked residents to attend as a show of support, as has Rachel Pineda, who organized the FaceBook effort.

Rule #1: Whatever the event, it can’t incur any direct or indirect village costs.  All other rules: there aren’t any.

The Facebook girls (5,907 followers and counting) and some teens were there.  Well done!   Past them, there were only six or seven others of us there, Mayor Sandack and Marge Earl included.  I was surprised by the lack of attendance, but I’ll take it as a good sign that wheels are in motion.

The five main things the CEC will be looking for an event to do are:

1. Improve the local economy.
2. Provide entertainment
3. Provide a sense of community.
4. Increase awareness of Downers Grove to a wider audience.
5. Provide community partnership opportunities for businesses and not-for-profits (think youth groups, church groups, scouts, guides and more).

There was some discussion that #3 and #5 needed to be higher on the list, and #2 could slide lower.

I had to leave then so I missed the teens and comments.  Perhaps Ms. Earl, if she reads this, could add some light to the balance of the meeting.  Or check the FB page via the above link.

Both the Arts Council and the Rotary have applications in for versions of a summer fest.  It sounds like the two groups are not currently tracking as one event, so maybe two smaller events take the place of Heritage Fest?  And there’s still a teen event possible.

Had to run and change a tire on Mrs. T’s ride.  What a lousy night to get a flat, in Woodridge no less, although the cold spurred me on to a record time.

South High students Rachel Pineda and Brianna Richardson launched their “Bring Back the 2010 Downers Grove Heritage Fest group on Facebook in December. I wrote about the girls’ effort — and Village Hall’s response to it — in a recent Sun column, here.

Since getting involved, the girls have been attending Community Events Commission meetings and have come up with their own idea for an alternative fest called Youth Day.

“We were thinking of making a mix between a youth day and the Heritage Fest,” Rachel reports. “We already started getting sponsers and are gonna propose the idea to the council.

“We are starting to contact some newspapers about this and we want to start contacting some news stations and get this really publicized. We have already contacted Mayor Sandack and he said he loves our ideas,” she said in a Facebook message.

The girls are planning to attend the Community Events Commission meeting at 6 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 28 at Village Hall. A “brainstorming event session” is scheduled, which means the time is right for all interested residents to weigh on on their ideas for the potential privately-sponsored fest.

Update- I kludged an upload of the complete 2009 Heritage Fest Annual Report, available after the break.

From page 5 Heritage Fest 2009 Economic Impact Study

Heritage Fest Annual Report 2009

If you figure how it’s been figured for the last 28 years, Heritage Fest 2009 generated positive cash flow as the report indicates.  Using the CED staff payroll apportionment that council employed this year during budget talks, it lost money.  The file is not machine readable so I had to down-rez and split it to get it under the 2MB limit.

Click here or on the cover image to view the first half of the report.  It contains the Table of Contents, the Executive Summary, and the narrative.  This file loads slowly, so please be patient.

Click here or on the page above to view part 2, the financial report, which includes the band list.  This file loads fairly slow, so please be patient.

Highights:

Click on cover for complete report.

Heitage Fest 2009 Economic Impact Study

This is where the talk of $40,000 in local sales tax generated from $2,291,111 in economic activity from non-local attendees comes from.  The economic report that estimates $5,212,661 in total economic activity generated by this event as a community economic benefit to DG businesses.  If the report is correct that business translates into $90,242.52 in local sales tax receipts.  Again I think the file is simply too large because it is not a readable .pdf. I got this crammed down small enough to use.  Click here or on cover for the complete report.

Resident Jack Ebersold, one of 4,800 4,985 Facebook group members, attended the CEC meeting Tuesday at 4pm and reported this:

The CEC meeting, in my opinion was very optimistic and there were a lot of good ideas and opinions tosses around. I want to retract the things i said a few days ago about the council members. Now that I clearly see that they are being proactive about the problem I know that they are some of the best for the job. I can tell that none of them wanted to make the hard decision of not only canceling HF but laying off many workers. Peoples lives will be affected more this year by the budget then having one less think to do the last week of June. So please try not to share negative thoughts on this site. If you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem! NOW LETS BRING BACK THE 2010 HF!!!!! Feel free to comment and ideas on how to publicly fund HF this year or express your favorite part of HF. The board mems. are part of this group and WILL take your suggestions seriously!

The two DGS teens who began the Facebook group Bring back the 2010 Downers Grove Heritage Fest! also attended the meeting.  Well done ladies!

So me and (the other organizer, both who are minors) attended the CEC meeting today. Very interesting things were said and this makes us want to do lots more than we are already doing to bring back this fest. We know that it was not an easy descision for the council to cancel this fest and now we have even more respect (additional to the tons of respect… we already had) for the council. They are willing to work with us to fundraise and get the public even more involved. So please people, help us with ideas to fundraise and to get even more of the public involved. We want to start fundraising very soon and we need volunteers! So come on people, let’s work together and get our fest back!

Jack, thank you for the report (note: I ran the spell checker on a couple words and changed one word “NO” to” NOW” which JE indicated was his intention). Thank you girls for your report and efforts on the massive Facebook organizing.

Most of the $168,000 (still a moving target) is/was staff costs of the Community Events Department. i.e organizing, coordinating, securing supporters/donors, executing contracts and keeping the books.  How much of that can be managed via volunteers and civic groups remains to be seen and is critical to success.  Everyone needs to pitch in:

…if the Rotary, the Moose, the Lions Club, the Kiwanis and/or others can step-up and run and fund HF in 2010, that’s a great thing and an example of the community pulling together to plan and run an event deemed worthy by many. I promise I’ll do what I can to help make that happen in 2010. And I assume all people of good will here will do the same.

That was Mayor Sandack posting up an Open Letter.  Right on Ron!  Although he was emphatic he was speaking for himself and only himself, Sandack is willing to help out.  Who else on council might be willing?

Considering what has been discussed since the village suspended it’s participation in late November is a smaller scale festival, this is all very encouraging.

A copy of the 2009 report written last October has been requested.  Who did what, what was rented and leased from whom, how much bands cost: the idea is to get the information out to whomever might assume the lead role in coordinating a smaller 2010 event.

In the meantime there is the 2008 Heritage Fest Annual Report to use as a starting point.  The village has a pretty complete record on-line, accessible without a FOIA request.  That report contains a reasonably complete balance sheet and that village-generated report sharply contradicts what the village says will be saved to the budget for 2010.

DGreport has uploaded the Heritage Fest 2008 Annual Report, which you can read here.  Former village commissioner Martin Tully formerly chaired the Community Events Commission, and as an occasional commenter here at DGreport, is welcome to jump in with corrections if some points or dollar amounts are missed or incorrectly presented.

The Annual Report has a complete set of payables and receivables, and is a reasonably complete accounting of much of the information needed to try and organize a 2010 event.

Note that 2008 wasn’t the best year weather-wise for HF.  Some light rain and high winds damped attendance.  The charity concert, which in 2007 attracted almost 3,000 paying attendees to hear The Gin Blossoms, drew fewer than 900 in 2008 with Vertical Horizon and was a money loser.

The ’08HF concluded Friday and Saturday nights with fireworks displays, an expense that was deleted in 2009 in order to open the top deck of the parking deck to paying cars.  Sponsorship dropped from 2007 also, generating cash or in-kind contributions of $60,650.

Attendance was estimated at a bit over 100,000 for the duration of the event.  About 10,500 attendees used the shuttle buses, generating $6,493 (kids under 5 rode free) in revenue.  Parking generated $13,115 without top-deck parking (due to fireworks).

The Rotary Club presented the village with $89,122 in revenues generated from the beer tent, down from the 2007 level due to low attendance at the Thursday night concert and crummy weather on Sunday.  The Rotary Club beer tent in-kind sponsorship donations of products and services were valued at an additional $21,100.

In 2008 the budgeted event expected to recoup 94.28% of expenses, but in the final analysis recouped only 90.37%.  Council shifted $50,000 from the General Fund for the Thursday night concert, which played a large part in that drop in recouped expenses.

The Annual Report shows budgeted expenses for the Heritage Festival were $419,750,and budgeted revenue was $419,900, which would have netted a small profit.  Actual expenses were $486,552, with actual revenue totaling $460,677, yielding a net loss of $25,875.

If the 2008 Heritage Fest had been suspended, the budget impact would have been a positive $25,875. Two years later, the budget impact of suspending Heritage Fest shows a gain of $494,000 — an increase of $468,125.

Note: 2008 Fourth of July events cost the village $31,939, and generated revenues of $7,873.  If the 2008 Fourth of July events had been suspended, the budget impact would have been a positive $24,066.

What happened to make Heritage Fest such a budget anchor that it’s costs jumped to $494,000?  It appears that the village may have totaled up the budgeted expenses, but did not balance that with revenues in order to come up with a net cost to the village.

This may have been an oversight due the last minute changes in the HF’s status.  One week the council was directing staff to give those expenses a budget haircut and staff found where they could reasonably clip $90,000;  the next week it was suspended.

On November 19, (agenda here) the CEC was moving forward with requests for proposals for the Beer Tent, Bingo  and Crafts and the Car Show and other attractions, printing up the brochures, and working on layout. Two weeks later, members were talking about what their duties might be and what the boundaries of assistance may be to any groups that might want to try and run a smaller HF in 2010.

The festival began in 1982 as a one-day celebration marking the 150th anniversary of the founding of Downers Grove.  During the last Community Events Commission meeting on December 1 a couple civic groups, notably the Rotary Club and President Barbara Wysocki seemed willing to take the lead in coordinating some sort of down-scaled 29th annual  Heritage Fest.  It seems a daunting task; the village has employed three staff members to coordinate and organize the event.

The Facebook group started by two students from Downers Grove South has to be considered a flash-crowd phenomenon, adding 3,700 followers in three days.  Their issue: Heritage Fest is a linchpin event of growing up in Downers Grove,. They can’t believe adults are scuttling it in 2010.

Looking through the comments, there is evidence of a willing pool of volunteers to pick up the slack and reduce expenses, help raise money, and generally assist — if only they knew what to do.  In 2008, staffing expenses were estimated $121,892.  That is where volunteers can bend the curve down.

Arts and Crafts have their own ebb and flow; to this very casual observer it seems this component has receded in recent years.  The HF Car Show, which the organizers once said they would make cost neutral, has been another component, with a more stable crowd year to year.

The carnival is a revenue generator.  In 2008, the street fair attractions brought in net revenues (after expenses) of $123,925.  This is due in large part to the youth of Downers Grove and surrounding communities, who attend HF and spend money on rides.

The Community Events Commission will meet at 4 p.m., Tues., Dec. 15 to discuss general topics (agenda is here).

The public group, “Bring Back the 2010 Heritage Fest,” is administered by Brianna Michele Richardson and Rachel Pineda, who is identified as its creator.

“The Downers Grove Village canceled the 2010 DG Heritage Fest,” according to the description. “This is one of the biggest festivals around and they can’t just take it away from us! Join and please help us get enough signatures to turn into the Village Council! We are going to have a written petition going around and we are hoping to get 500 or more signatures. Come on DG and all who attend Heritage Fest! Bring the tradition back! Invite all your friends to join!”

When I received an invitation to join the group Wednesday afternoon, the membership stood at about 400. As of this morning, it’s 1,400. “Wow, we break 1,000 members in one night! Thanks everyone,” Pineda wrote Wednesday night.

While most of the members appear to be high school and college kids, the ranks of adult members — including Tom Cawthorne, Mark Thoman, Elena Falco and Greg Boltz — seem to be growing.

One of them, Donna Gilbert wrote, “The Heritage Fest Changed My Life – After seven years of wearing braces on my arm I met a (doctor) at Heritage Fest that figured out I was allergic to Milk! Keep this festival!”

Among the comments were indications that an organized effort could be in the offing.

“Heritage Fest was a major part of my childhood,” wrote Dorothy Ann McQuaid.  “I would GLADLY donate towards a fund to bring even a small-scale version back. Obviously money is tight for all of us so maybe we can cut down the less popular rides or booths, but we need to come out as a community and do SOMETHING.”

Other teens debated the economic realities that led to the decision in the first place. “Council probably isn’t going to re-vote on the budget distribution” wrote Kyle Moy. “This is $400 grand we’re talking about.”

“You all realize this is because of the economy right? They’re not just going to give it back because a bunch of people on Facebook joined a group,” wrote Tom Cannan.

Which raises some interesting questions: Is Facebook the new conduit for civic activism? Could circulating paper petitions become passe?

And will the village council — or any elected body — respond to a Facebook group of hundreds or possibly even thousands of residents, the members of which appear to be using real names?

Stay tuned.

Everyone on council agreed this was a tough budget to do, and in the end all but  Commissioner William Waldack voted for it. Several council members echoed Bruce Beckman’s request for a “debriefing” so that the good and bad of this year’s marathon process could be reviewed and improvements wrought.

Most council members had something they didn’t like about the budget.  Waldack had the best visual aids, using a can of soda to explain how little it would take to avoid the cuts, and comparing an apple core to an apple to explain the difference between what functions are necessary, what services are needed beyond that, and how the extra beyond a core minimum makes a community more complete.  His comments garnered applause from the audience.

Mayor Sandack kept coming back to a familiar theme: personnel expenses are outstripping the village’s ability to pay them: Here’s the dollars we have, here’s the things wanted.  We don’t have the money, math is math.  By stripping the budget this year, next year may be easier to figure out.

Going, going, gone

DARE is gone.  The two most junior patrol policemen are gone at the end of year.  Counseling and Social Services: also gone EOY, although it’s unclear whether the department director carries on. Community Events has been pared to just one person.  No open positions will be filled.  Community Grants are gone.  The village’s contribution to Meals on Wheels is gone.  The senior taxi subsidy continues at two-thirds its previous level.

Heritage Fest is gone as a village-enabled event.  The Ice Festival is gone as a village event, but will return as a smaller event over Valentine’s Day weekend (more on that in a later post).  The Criterion bike races are gone unless someone wants to pick up the reins.  Fourth of July parade and fireworks stay, tree-lighting and events at Thanksgiving stay, the Bike and Buggy parade stay.

Despite the cuts, taxes are up: The increase to a home with $300K market value will be somewhere around $48, depending on what gets abated.  Sales tax goes up .25% on July 1, 2010.

You can read the village press release here.  After noting to staff that the costs for Heritage Fest keep shifting around, the latest quoted is $494,000.  After earlier seeing the cost estimated $161,000, $30,000, $80,000, and $7,820, $494K seems a bit high.

Heritage Fest is dead.  Long live Heritage Fest.

David Humphries has served on the Community Events Commission for 26 years.  That’s one year less than the run of  Heritage Fest.  He made many pertinent points, including how HF generates about $40,000 in sales tax from sales at local businesses — revenues that are not reflected in the financial reckonings.

We’ve written before about how HF acts as a charity-giving leveraged multiplier, creating significant revenues for youth groups and not-for-profits; you name it, all get operating money from a HF event.   When it was decided the village was out of the HF business in 2010, some actual costs were not known — to decision-makers, to the CEC, or to the residents.  However, there is now a list of costs for events that require a permit, which any replacement for HF will be, so those will be known shortly.

I went to the CEC meeting ready to ask that the commission reach out to civic groups for help to keep HF going in 2010 and, wouldn’t you know it,  those groups were there too, volunteering to step up to keep an event going that had so many benefits, fiscal and otherwise, to the community.

Just another example how DG rocks.  There’s still more to be worked out, but the village can do a lot to make this happen this year as a cost-neutral event if they want to do it. Council voted last week to kill it for 2010.  If commissioners don’t throw any roadblocks down, Heritage Fest may still take place this coming year in that smaller, more focused format many DGreport readers have tossed around, incorporating ideas many have posited here and elsewhere.

But if Heritage Fest costs anywhere near the latest village estimate of $494,000, no civic group will be able to do it.

So far it looks like the Rotarians, Noon Lions, Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Management Corp. and the Economic Development Corporation are all willing to pitch in.  More planning help, more volunteer help will be needed.  For those willing to pitch in, stay tuned. The next Community Events Commission meeting is in two weeks.

Notice the opportunity for public comment — five minutes maximum — is at the top of the agenda.  A brain-storming session is also scheduled.

At its Nov. 23 meeting, the village council decided to suspend Heritage Fest in 2010 over the objections of Commissioner Geoff Neustadt, the council liaison to the CEC.

The only hope for reprieve may be if citizens agree to take it on. There have been many suggestions made on this blog in recent weeks. Maybe some of you will make time to attend this important meeting.