Fourth of July Committee

`` CITY OF GLENDALE April 7, 2020, 6:30 pm 2019 4th of July Committee Meeting digitally by Google Zoom Present: Jenna Kunde Eric Zentner Jesse BaDour Sgt. Miguel Martinez of GPD Jessica Ballweg Marty Hersh Mary Lynn Cinealis Paul Stoelzel Sarah Acker Tom Cinealis Bethanie Gist Steve Schmelzling Ann Deuser The meeting was called to order with the Pledge of Allegiance. The main thing we need to figure out is what we are doing? Can we do the celebration? What do our contracts say? Jessica said she thought the contract protects the band, not us. Sarah, who has the contract in front of her, said the contract protects the band if they can’t perform, but it doesn’t protect us. The contract is for $4,000. Jessica said we should talk to them because it’s not like they can just do a different gig somewhere else that day and our reservation prevented this. Steve suggested we switch the same contract to July 4, 2021. Jenna suggested we ask Sarah to talk to the band and propose this. We later came to consensus that Sarah would just tell them it’s canceled and see if they demand payment anyway before proposing anything else. We talked about who decides if the celebration is canceled; it is we, the committee, who decides. Ann said for Rootbeer Bash, they’re tentatively planning a scaled-back version that is easily cancelable if necessary. There was talk about whether we should cancel right now. Eric proposed we wait until the end of April and see if things are getting better. Ann said it is really hard to get sponsors right now. Steve said we should defer the decision for a while and run the contract by city attorney, John Fuchs. Paul said he talked to the fireworks company, and orders need to be in by the first week in May. If we order and then delay, they will store it for no charge. Also, if we do a small order, they can add to it later (through June 20th). Bethanie suggested that if we don’t celebrate on the fourth, maybe we could do fireworks the evening of the Rootbeer Bash. It would have to be two separate locations (no fireworks allowed at Maslowski Park, where the RBB is). Mary Lynn said that she’s in the medical field and we (in WI) have not even hit our surge yet. It should hit in 2-3 weeks. Mary Lynn said we should just cancel the 4th and think about whether August might work. Tom asked if our funds can still be used if we postpone the event. Steve said he thought they could be used a different date this year, but he doesn’t think it would carry over to the July 4, 2021. Steve said it looks like it will be canceled for July 4th (and it would have been scaled back anyway). Ann said she thinks the band will work with us because they know Glendale does a lot of events and they don’t want to be on our bad list. Tom thinks if we tell them, “The whole world is shutting down; Page 1 of 3 `` we’re shutting down fourth of July.” They will not say, “Tough luck, we want our money.” Sarah said she has a relationship with their manager, and she thinks she can talk to the manager. Steve said, since it seems the 4th isn’t happening, could we pick a different date. Labor Day weekend is September 7th. Eric suggested that this is near Sept. 11th, and this might be fitting since it’s patriotic and could be a commemoration, not just a celebration. This would conflict with Summerfest (which is also delayed this year) and Oktoberfest. Bethanie said people could have time to do all three depending on how they schedule it. Tom mentioned that we always share the day with all the communities. It was mentioned that everyone will want to be outside doing things by then. Steve asked if we want to do the whole thing or just fireworks and the band and some simple things like face painting and bounce houses. Tom said we want to stay away from bounce houses and face painting because of close proximity and transmitting disease. It was suggested that we just make it an evening activity. Marty said there won’t be corn roasters available during Summerfest. Mary Lynn said we need to keep it low key because we don’t know what’s happening yet. Ann said that we also won’t have as much money. Tom said we should be satisfied just with fireworks. Bethanie said we should think about this for a month and try to decide with more certainty what exactly we are doing at our May meeting. She asked if we might want to have some food, but Jessica said we should not because of added health concerns and health-department regulations. Ann said we need a message to publish about the fact that we’re not doing public events on the fourth but that we will do something at a later date. Jenna said she would take care of this. Tom asked when we would need to order fireworks for a Sept 11 fireworks event. Paul said they do one big order each year, so they might not be available. Eric thought there might be many communities not ordering fireworks yet, so there might be more supply than demand. Paul said he would try to ask the supplier and find out more about this. He already sent the email. Jessica said she’d let the county parks department know we are canceling our reservation of the park for July 4th. Sarah said she’d cancel with the balloon guy. Jenna asked if there is a way we could engage the Glendale community in celebrating the heroes of now and the past. Maybe they share a favorite picture of a past fourth of July, maybe on our website or Facebook page or something. Bethanie said we should look into this next month. Steve agreed that we should do something virtually to observe the fourth of July. Tom asked how hard it would be to do a small fireworks show and not announce it to the public. Paul said we could do this; it would just take two people from an undisclosed location and post it on Facebook. Tom asked if they could be high, so people would see them from far away. Paul said the higher it is, the bigger a perimeter you need. Ann asked if all the North Shore communities could unite to do a single fireworks show online. It was discussed that it’s hard to keep this secret so people don’t try to come and see them live. Paul mentioned that we’d be dealing with 4 different fireworks companies. Steve asked if we could do multiple shooting locations so more people could see it. Bethanie mentioned that if we do this, we won’t have the money for a later date big fireworks event. Tom asked how much a couple small shows would cost. Paul said two five-minute shows would be Page 2 of 3 `` roughly 3-4 thousand; we would need insurance for two locations. Bethanie mentioned that there will probably be a national fireworks show on TV, so we should schedule around that. Steve said we won’t get it so all of Glendale will see it because Glendale is spread so far north and south, so maybe we should just not do fireworks on the 4th. Bethanie said it’s the city’s money, so if we do it, the whole city should be able to see it. Meeting was adjourned at 7:39pm. We are meeting next on Tuesday, May 5th at 6:30pm through Google Zoom. Page 3 of 3