Celtic Festival Survives a Close Vote

For a few moments at Monday’s Council meeting, it appeared as if the city might be putting the kibosh on its popular summer event, the Celtic Festival.

Several council members expressed frustration with the festival’s inability to provide financial documents in a timely fashion and expressed doubt about whether the city should be underwriting a summer festival at a time when it is looking for ways to save money.

But in the end, the majority of the council sided with Mayor Gretchen Driskell, who argued that the Celtic Festival is important to Saline and that planning for this year’s festival was too far down the road to turn back.

Council voted 4-3 to host the city event July 8-9 at and to authorize the accompanying beer and wine tent. Voting with Driskell were council members Linda TerHaar, David Rhoads and Glenn Law. Voting against the motion were council members Dean Girbach, Pat Ivey and Brian Marl.

The motion included a provision that an estimated $5,469 in and services and overtime be waived. In addition, council received an estimate that DPW workers support the festival each year with about $25,000 of labor before, during and after the festival.

Driskell said the Celtic Festival has been important to the city, in part because of the exposure it brings.

“It brings a lot of people to Saline and a lot of people who live in Saline. It has brought national recognition to Saline. (In the past) Fox News was here all weekend, covering the festival, and the dancing in the streets and Murphy’s Crossing and . They were here because of the Celtic Festival,” said Driskell, who, along with Law, serves on the festival’s executive committee. “However, this is really about $5,000 cost and some ongoing costs over and above what we normally pay. I feel this is an important event for the community that comes at a nominal cost.”

Driskell said the Celtic Festival was also important to the city because of the number of volunteers, well over 400, who get involved and help make it happen.

“The amount of work the volunteers do brings a lot of energy to Saline,” she said.

Girbach said he had trouble justifying taxpayer money on the festival.

“I’m concerned, with what we could be facing with revenue sharing cuts from the state, that we’re contributing a significant amount of our resources to the festival, and that to continue to do so, we’ll have to forgo other opportunities,” Girbach said.

Ivey said he wasn’t sure how much Saline benefitted from the Celtic Festival and said he wondered if the community might be better off with concentrated advertising on free events like Summerfest, the Summer Music Series and .

“I think, from talking to constituents, that this event has run its course and that it is not something that most citizens in Saline feel is necessary,” Ivey said.

Marl, too, stated his objection to the city being in the festival business.  He was also said he was unhappy with being asked to consider the motion when he’d only just received the festival’s financial reports earlier that day.

“I’m appalled that the 2010 annual report was just given to us via email at 11 a.m. and that we had our work session at 6:45 p.m. and now here we are at 7:30 p.m. being asked to make decisions. I have lingering concerns that this should have been voted on much earlier,” Marl said. “I think it’s time for a change and that we need a new direction for the Celtic Festival, one that mirrors the model with the Harvest of Arts and Summerfest, two independent and autonomous events that are not sponsored and controlled by the City of Saline”

Council members Law, Rhoads and TerHaar also said they shared some of the concerns voiced by the dissenters.  All three said too much work had been done on this year’s festival to turn back now. Rhoads appeared very close to a “No” vote.

“I can find it in myself to support it this year. However, unless something drastic changes, I will have a difficult time supporting future motions,” Rhoads said.

Bob Rash, who has taken on sponsorship duties for the festival this year, thanked council for its decision.

“We’ve taken all the comments seriously and we’ll be examining all the numbers on the revenue and expenses side,” Rash said.

Council met with members of the Celtic Festival’s Executive Committee at a work session prior to the meeting. Members of the committee apologized for the tardiness of the 2010 financial report, which showed a profit of about $4,000 after the festival made cutbacks last year.

“Our goal isn’t to hold this event as a fundraiser or to make money. Our goal is to provide value to the families who come to the festival to have fun,” said executive council member Don Makins. “When we make money, we put that right back into the festival.”

Paula Grosshans, also of the executive committee, reported that the festival has made money in 11 of the last 15 years.

“Those years where we didn’t make money were years where it rained,” she said.

Rash reported that he was having early success in his search for festival sponsors.

During the regular council meeting, Driskell noted that the festival once boasted a fund balance of over $100,000 before a few rainy festivals and the economy took its toll.

Several members of the audience spoke on the issue during public comment. Mary Hess, a former member of city council, said times had changed and noted that the festival had lost big sponsors over the years.

“I’m asking council to take account of the taxpayers, and the seniors who've had their pensions cut,” Hess said prior to the vote. After the vote, she said she was disappointed that the festival committee did not provide council with numbers until Monday’s meeting.

“I guess procrastination is a thief of time and, in this instance, it helped pass this motion,” Hess said, who said she twice asked for the festival’s financial report over the last four months. Hess said that the city should stick to basic services like fire, police, DPW and water.

Mary Nehls-Frumkin has been involved with the Celtic Festival since 1997.

“I’ve seen so many good things come from the festival. Yes, times are tough and yes, we’ve seen sponsorship money decrease. For young people, they’ve grown up with this festival. This is a family event, right here in town, where you can bring your kids and have a great time. You can’t put a dollar amount on that,” she said.