Wildwood Celebration Commission - Regular Meeting

We don't know yet. 7-1. I'm going to pass this and let you see what I can figure out. That's not volunteer. I've got to figure out when to work, what dates I can, or what times.

Okay. Great. This is Tuesday, August 11th at 6 p.m. I'd like to call the meeting of the Wildwood Celebration Commission to open. Please call the roll.

Co-Chair Edens. Here. Commissioner Silverman. Here. Co-Chair Jones.

Here.

Commissioner Collier. Commissioner Lind. Here. Commissioner McEvoy. Here. Counselor Leeson-Robleski. Here. And myself.

We have a quorum. Excellent. All right. I would take a motion to approve the minutes from Wednesday, July 1st.

I'll make a motion that we approve the minutes.

Made by Commissioner Lind, seconded by Council Liaison Robleski. She be you to that. Any changes to the meeting minutes? Seeing none, motion to approve as presented. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstain? On to the public comment portion of the meeting. I see no individuals from the public. In person, do we have anyone online?

And care will do here to the attendee. If you would like to offer public comment regarding tonight's meeting and and the agenda items. If you would use the raise hand feature will promote you to a panel. Chair, I believe they just want to hear what we got this. All right, well, Me too.

Thank you for attending tonight virtually. We're ready to move on to the discussion of the 2026 event, which will be here next month, starting with item A, revenue sources and sponsorship for funding. Take it away, Mr. Goonage. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair and chairs and members of the commission. Thank you all for attending tonight. We do appreciate it. The St. Louis County Police Department. Thank you as well. First of all, I have a bit of housekeeping news. I believe we have a new Wildwood resident, a little baby from That's true. Your son?

Oh, yes. Dan here. They all look like her.

Speak up, I promise. So congratulations. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

How are the parents and child doing?

Everybody's good and everybody's busy. So yeah, it's great. We now have three granddaughters.

So yeah, thank you.

Thank you. Jake, if you would, please. Yeah, it's wonderful. Well, members of the commission, as we typically do, we start off with me. And tonight we're going to talk about revenue services and sponsorships. Ms. Nager has already posted our thermometer on the refrigerator to cool it down. We have to cool it down because we're going to bust it if we keep going. I love that. Yes. And that includes the sponsorships as well as the booth fees we've collected to date. So very successful again this year. So I head off to all of you that participated in the fundraising, spoke to friends and neighbors and businesses. You've done a great job. As you can see from item one, in terms of our expenditures, they jumped, almost doubled from the last report beginning of July. That is because a lot of those half payments are now coming due. And so we're kind of closing out the contracts and the responsibilities with the contracts to certain vendors, our entertainment, etc. So quick math, we're at about $45,000, which means we still have about $25,000 of our initial budget allocation for city council. to allocate, and most of that will be allocated as we get closer to the event. I gave you the good news already. If they're the sponsorships, just over $31,000 has been pledged by the business community and others to the event. The main portion, as you know, comes from our booth fees and other collections we do for the event. We're doing very, very well. So again, congratulations and thank you. I do want to note some of our major sponsors. I think it's important that we recognize them. Go Green Lawn and Landscaping has been a major sponsor of the event venues for a number of years, physically a nursery. I think you all know them. They're in the parade. They do a wonderful job with their float and also just their booths at the event have always been some of the Public Water Closet, which is PWC, they provide us our Johnny on the Spots and our park facilities and other events. And so they come forward and become a major sponsor of the events. West News Magazine, West County Roofing, that's a new one. So we appreciate those that have taken the dive into the pool for the first time. We hope the water is comfortable and they enjoy. St. Louis Community College, Wildwood Campus. They have become a major sponsor. They also are helping us out with the back to school party this year for the amount of $2,500. So a big help to us. All right. Bo Boikman Ford. And finally, Singer Ice Cream. Singer Ice Cream has been a very good partner of late. They helped us out with our our 66th centennial celebration. It was July 17th. So we thank them very much. So again, just a good group of sponsors, some local, some city. So that's a positive as well. People are starting, I hope, to recognize this as an event that draws a lot of people, attendants, and it's a good venue for them to promote their business and help the city evolve. We do appreciate Bender fees, we've talked about that's part of that 41,000 hours. And you know, you made a decision back in May to go with a new beer vendor for the event. And that is the West County Lines Club and the Rotary Club of West County as well. And we're in the process of making sure that we have all the things they need to have a successful event as well. And then in-kind contributions, those are the ones we receive ongoing. The principal one, as you can see, is with the West News Magazine, and that's a split. We'll pay them same amount for that eight-page spread in the patient that comes out in September. And that's that pull-out section. So it's kind of a nice thing. And it gets to over 60, I think 60,000 households across the West County area and those that subscribe beyond the West County area. So we're doing pretty well, I think. I hope you agree. If you see some flaws or see something we're missing, please let us know. We want to make sure we get it.

Jim, what was the response of the ball field? when they did the ball field on the beer? Well, we've gotten a couple of, well, it's a bit of a long story.

We had invited them to participate in the centennial celebration. They came up with an idea to have a softball tournament this coming weekend. Turnout has not been what they had hoped in terms of registrations. We got kind of a dissatisfied email from the Pond Athletic Association. It was just about the same time we were going to advise them that they were not selected, as they know already. But we figured we'd give them a day of breathing room, and then we'll send that out. So I'll have an update for you. A black eye, you know.

Yeah, right. You want us to come for some muscle? That's right.

Definitely. So new efforts, we have the new promotional materials. I believe Ms. Chansky was effective in handing out the T-shirts that our commission members, as well as the badges that we've decided to offer as well. There's another one. As you know, we were also going to sell the sweatshirts we have left over from one of our events. We had to cancel our half marathon two years ago or a year ago this January because of the weather. So we have a bunch of them. And so if you buy one, you get a badge. I mean, buy the badge alone for the same price. So hopefully we'll get rid of those and make good use of them. Great sweatshirt for the winner. In fact, if you all want one, we'll give you one tonight. So we restarted the marketing of our memorial favors. And as you know, that's been very successful. We started the first group with nine. We received nine additional orders, so we're up to 18. including the tour. We went up to that end. You can see where we've started. So we're going to kind of blossom it out and head toward the stage area as we get successful with it. Wildwood wear and gear. I think we have it all in.

Yes, I'm sorry. Okay, our scavenger hunt prize and then we will also sell is our wildwood hat. So, A. And then we have our T-shirts, our two types of T-shirts. This color. And we have this color, which is also what staff will wear. That's nice. And then we have our lightweight hoodie. I love it. Love it. Love it. Very nice. So, yeah. And then we have a price sheet. which is basically double of all of our expenditures for these, which is in the back page. That's real quick.

We're acting like a retail store. There you go. If you want any of these items, just let us know. And that's promotion to us if you wear them around. I know Ms. Chansky was saying, don't wear your shirt.

I won't wait. I think that makes sense, yeah.

But it's a good way to sell the event because people will see it and say, what's that? It's the best city celebration in the entire world. September 19th. We hope you enjoy it. We have completed the solicitation of all businesses as well as the contractors and consultants at Assist the City Day in and Day Out. So I think that's part of that $31,000 we've been talking about. Cost reductions, we're working on that each day. As I mentioned, we're about $45,000 into our $70,000 budget. We'll do our best to keep below $70,000. And probably at the next meeting in September, we'll have a little bit better idea of how successful we've been with cost reductions. We have already advertised the event in the only paper Gazette that you'll get this year via the mail. There will be more as we kind of slide into the end of August, the beginning of September with our social media website and a couple of other ideas we have. This year, different than the last couple of years, Debbie Ward, who is our social media consultant to the city, she is no longer going to be providing that service. She got a promotion at her, I don't want to say real job, but real job. And she just doesn't have the time. So it's going to be more of an in-house kind of process. We've not been able to find someone to kind of pick up where this ward left off. We'll do our very best. And then finally, One of our most successful tools, the electronic message boards. I'm being told by the board of public safety here at the city of Longwood, we can no longer use them. So it's against something called the highway safety regulations and board of public safety passed a set of recommendations and city council adopted them. So I can't use the electronic message boards.

Those dumb jokes on there. Okay. The stuff that sat on the roads. So, okay.

Intended for use relative to traffic issues and construction projects. So I asked Tom Lee, our city administrator, where's my sign? I want one.

Good. What about a parade? Like wouldn't that be considered a traffic?

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if it's negative advertising or not. Expect the lanes. They got on 40.

They've been promoting this week. Expect the lanes. I have expressed my displeasure.

To everybody that was on the department head call, including our director of public works, what I will tell you is it's one of the most effective tools we have. We did an open house planning process many years ago. We ended up doing the open house down at Wildwood Middle School. We had 125 people show up. It was the largest we've ever done. At the end of the discussion, I just kind of casually said to the group, how'd you find out about this? We love the fact that you're all here. 75% of them raised their hand when I said the message boards. So.

You can get one of those.

We prohibit them. In fact, I had the police. They were doing one on the weekends when we're not around. kind enough to help me out on that. So thank you. So we're working on a little bit of a deficit. So just means we're going to have to work a little harder and we'll do our very best.

Maybe next year we can get banners that go across the bridges.

Actually, the Missouri Department of Transportation has changed their position and they are now allowing signage on pedestrian bridges. There's an airspace agreement. There's a bunch of things you have to do. Our city administrator, Tom Lee, is working with them on that now. Probably won't have it for this year, but I think it's in our future.

That would be awesome. Well, perhaps we could ask our council liaison to perhaps during the next work session when this is an item for discussion to express the commission's displeasure for our lack of signage and recommend an amendment to the ordinance passed that includes messaging for city purposes as a public service announcement.

There you go. Adam chair. The alternative would be where it is here. And as you know, mid year, we do budget adjustments to this, in this case, 26. So Mr. Blaski may be able to say, well, we need a little extra money in there for option a and B for your pleasure. Mr. Blaski. We'll get it done.

All right.

So are there any questions on any of the items I covered? I've done a wonderful job. I extend my appreciation to Ms. Chansky and Ms. Navier. They've done great work. I sit in my office and think, wow, this is going great. Any questions?

Banners?

Banners.

Sorry, that's all part of marketing.

I'll defer to Ms. Chansky. You want to start? Or do you want to wait till we do?

They're going to be great banners. I can tell. She's already done the promotional items. All right. All right. Great update.

All right. And madam chairs and member of the commission, as you know, uh, each month we do a political update. That's a little into the details in terms of the number of participants we have. at this stage, just about six weeks before the event, I think. Here's a couple of updates. I have made contact with all the three retired . I think it's going very well. We're just comparing schedules. I'll let you know via email before our next meeting if we have confirmation. Part of it is I'm pressing now because I have dropped the ball a bit. The West News Magazine wants to know who the Grand Marshals are. I talked to the former chief of Monarch Fire Protection District today, and he was very touched by the fact that we even thought of it. Just so you know, the fire chief from Monarch Fire Protection District is doing paramedic work inside an urgent care center as just a kind of I think you'll be very impressed if you get a chance to meet former Chief Spiegel. Just a great guy. Nice. So that's on your way. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed. Chief Krause, who was at Metro West, lives here in town. I'll send the police over there if I have to. make sure he shows up one way or another. If he's in handcuffs, you know what he really wanted to do that day. In fact, we'll see what we can do. Folks down in Eureka Fire Protection District were very nice as well. And they thought it was just the gentleman I talked to, the fire marshal, said, boy, that's just really nice of you to think. So good job, you all. I think the parade's going very well. Sergeant Grace, Officer Fisher, and the three of us, we need to sit down and figure out the safety components. As I mentioned in the past, I have some ideas. We just haven't had the time to sit down. That's going to be here between now and our next meeting. So we can assure you as commission members and police, make sure that we have a safe event and they aren't pulling their hair off because we cut a corner here or there. Not you all. So we're working on that. If there's any questions, Chris, I'll let you update and just if there's anybody that we've missed or have changed their mind and not coming. I think the principia was the one where.

Ending. I've tried calling them, but it's just.

Officer DeGelder used to have it in there. Maybe we need it. officer, former officer to Gelder to call his friend over at Principia and see if he can work his magic again this year. They're great. They bring their cheer squad or pom-pom squad.

What group are you talking about?

Principia. They're band and they're pom-pom squad or cheerleaders. Which helps parade. I wish we could get Lafayette to participate.

Well, Lafayette has their homecoming parade the night before, so they're probably all paraded out.

Let me just keep them walking around and bring them on over in the morning. Any questions on the parade? They're still accepting registrations, so if you know of somebody that might be interested, please send them on in. Thank you. I'll go to my phone and sit in voicemail for a day or two and get discouraged. So yes, please. If you know somebody, let us know.

Is it about the same as last year so far?

She's going to get to it here right after the scavenger hunt.

Scavenger hunt starts August 21st. Putting it all together. You know, all the little stickers that you have to collect. And it will be, blue sheets will be online for downloading. It'll be at the YMCA. It'll be here. I'm gonna give Natalie some and St. Louis Community College will also have some. And I'll leave some at the places where you collect, so.

And as you know, at the last meeting, you all presented the draft of the items and the locations. and you, by motion, approved it. I can't say any more, because I think I gave away already one of the motions with my big mouth at the last meeting. There are 13 clues. Lucky number, by the way. Any questions on the scavenger hunt? You know you'll be our guinea pigs, so you'll have to do it the first day, all of you.

That sounds great. Is it going to be in the West Magazine on your computer?

Stacey, is the West News Magazine, are they going to promote?

They are, yes. They know all about it. I sent them the clue sheets also.

Okay.

So it'll be in the eight-page spread.

You want to know the parade?

Yeah, I'm going to have the last time last time.

Last year.

I got all the other We're ready for the update.

Yes. Even location and layout. We kind of made a Little bit of a switch room with some of the layout that we're going to talk about tonight. Okay. Volunteers, we still have the Lafayette ROTC, which is lovely help to us. And they will help with dining tent as well as cleanup. They'll help us take down tents end of the night. It's huge help to us when our legs are very tired at the end of the night. So we're very thankful to have them and they will have a booth at the event as well. sponsorships director boonage has discussed bistro lighting we're ready to go that's going to be installed the wednesday before the event um and i'm sure we'll have it on before then right and so you guys want to pop up before then it'll look really cool we'll be in the village green um police services i know those are actively going on um we'll discuss some today so um Do you guys have anything to add, Sergeant Grayson? Line dancing. Can I just skip over that one? We finally got the confirmation that it is not being approved. It's just one of the things that the city administrator said wasn't imperative to have.

Can we afford it? Is there a sense that if two chairs made a phone call to Mr. Lee that that could be beneficial?

I don't know. She's been canceled already. Um, we did, we did border off just so she wouldn't be tying up her schedule. Um, because it's kind of been sitting, we felt bad that we couldn't move. We had her booked. We had her pause, pause, pause, pause. And I don't know. I don't know if you could work your magic. It was, was it cost? It wasn't even really that much cost. It was just what we have to make sure we have all the important stuff. Not that that's not important, but the firm basics of the electric and the... What else is basic?

There's a 20 minute. The portable restrooms.

It's everything.

So I don't know if Director Binnish wants to comment on it, but... I would think that because we raised more than expected. HAB-Masyn Moyer- More than just the cost.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- Or is there something else. HAB-Masyn Moyer- I mean, so there's something else that would be an excellent question.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- Yeah city administer HAB-Masyn Moyer- Yeah, what's his how he I would be just curious why he just out of the blue.

It was so popular last year and it really filled a void.

I mean, it was an absolute blast.

He really did a good job in the parade.

He beats me down if I bring him over. How much was this last year? How much is it this year? What's the difference? I get it.

I guess I just don't understand. I mean, I realize there are some decisions that have to be made at a staff level. My job is not to do your job. However, if it's something that we were hopeful would happen, it would have been nice if that would have been presented to us as a decision. Especially because if we're not counting on something to be cut, I do run my mouth that it's going to happen again when I'm telling other people reasons why they should come to the community. So what feels like a last minute cut to us because it's the meeting before, you know. Okay.

Well, Chair, as you know.

We shall advocate for the line dancing.

As you know, Madam Chair, we brought this to you back in July, the start of the month, and noted that it was on the city administrator's desk waiting for action. So we've done our best to keep it.

I just did not realize that that minute had potential. I thought it just needed to be signed and executed. I didn't realize it was up for. I did not read between the lines. I did not get that. That's on me.

We were on them, too.

We were on them. You did what you could do. I mean, you did everything you could do. And plus, you've already canceled it. It wouldn't be right to go back and, oh, we're having you back on again that easily, would it? I mean, we just felt bad.

I would be waiting so long because we booked her. Now, she did ask about the parade. But, you know, she's coming from far away and we don't pay for the parade. So, yeah. Yeah. She was there because she was... Last year, she was coming.

Her cost increased from last year? Substantially?

Well, her time, no. Okay. Where does she come from?

I'm going to have to look it up. Where does she come from? She was charging $250. $250? $250 we're talking here?

It was for 20 minutes or half an hour. It wasn't for long.

I was trying to be on for a half hour. I mean, that's the way I look at it and how many people participate, but okay.

I'm sorry. Oh, no, that's just way goes no bad news. I wanted to skip that one, guys.

Okay, Plain Air Art Event. If you entered in the lobby, you might have noticed there are 59 pieces plus three. 59 getting ready to be judged. There were 62 artists that participated this year in the Plain Air Art Event. And those went up today. So they are fresh on the wall. They will be judged on the 25th. by two judges. And then we will also have the People's Choice Award at Celebrate Wildwood. So people can vote, come in and vote in the lobby here for their favorite People's Choice Award. So then on top of the regular awards that we'll be having, we'll also have a special People's Choice Award. And they will be for sale as well at Celebrate Wildwood. So another little addition. Can we vote tonight? Not yet. That's nice. Not yet. So if they win an award from the judging, that automatically goes to the sponsor of the event. He wins those. So then those have to be marked so you're not able. Well, we can still vote People's Choice Award on those, but they're going to be differentiated. that those will go to him. They can't be purchased or stuff.

So best in show photography, best in show art, go to the patron of the event, which is B&B Theater. They give us $2,500 for the price button.

Okay, get it.

So notification of awards. So we'll get theirs and then people's choice will be enough.

Yeah, voted on by regular people.

And just to let you know, Ruth Waters, who has been our longtime receptionist, has offered to stay in the lobby during Celebrate Wildwood and kind of manage the plein air component. We've really enjoyed helping us collect the art and the photography when the photographers and artists brought it in. So she's been great.

She's been a big part of it this year. So that's nice. Okay. Event date, September 19th. All our mandatories are in place. Oh, fireworks. Fireworks. We've kind of just kind of adjusted that location as well. So it's in a nice safe spot. And that's going to be over off of Manchester Road between Larry's and the temple on the corner. So a nice area that we should all be able to see over there. So then another little thing worked out.

The provider of the fireworks had concerns about shooting from the community garden or further to the east. In fact, their concern was that some might land on the theater's roof. Mary Kay Corsair, who was a longtime property owner and developer here in Wildwood, they own 11 acres between the mosque and Larry's. And we asked her and she said, kindly agreed to let us shoot from there. So good news is they'll rise behind the stage and we think it'll be a great show. Again, a local resident, a business owner stepped up and is helping us at no charge.

Okay, on to the parade. Starting from Schnucks, we have 35 participants. They're all listed right there for you to see. At this time last year, we had 39. so and as you know those are the greatest of the procrastinators we have the free people oh yeah they can wait till the last minute yeah because after labor day they'll start cause it's too late yeah yeah so that's that's we're feeling good about that director finished talked about the grand marshals um fire departments metro west and eureka And the armed services, we do have Lafayette ROTC involved in the parade as well. And I'm sorry to also say that the U.S. Air Force military band declined. They're not able to make it. So we did get an email. We're disappointed to see that.

Just so you know, back around 15th or 20th anniversary, we had one year the Army band out of Portland. The next year we had the Air Force band out of Scott Field. They did a wonderful job. They were our Friday night concerts.

I'm trying to remember. I might have banged.

They were just great. And, you know, it's just nice to have. Obviously, there's conflicts across the globe, so that's kind of... Obviously, they have other priorities. We appreciate your opinion.

I probably heard there wasn't going to be line dancing.

I'm debating. I'm actually debating on whether to retire before this year. It's okay. I'll show you no line dancing.

Well, you know, especially the Navy, they got to tow the line. So what is, you know. Great.

Okay. Food and drink. We are going to talk about the layout in just a minute. And our food vendors and our drink vendors listed there. We have listed as pending. Ms. Robleski has been beating the streets getting them signed up. So hopefully we'll have that finished. And also Tamale Man is on the schedule.

So we're good to go. Surprise and fire.

Fries and Fire is, they do some kebabs. They did some, was it like fried bananas or something like that? They had fries. They were at our concert in, was it last month? No, it was the month before. June. It was really good. It was really good. And they were the nicest people. Okay. So yeah, we'll be there. Interpreters for the deaf on the schedule, our sound stage, all good to go. Our bands, all that's been in place for quite some time.

Have you all ever heard the fabulous Motown review? They're great. I like Motown. I'm supposed to be on Saturday.

Get your dancing shoes on.

Get your dancing shoes on. Not your line dancing shoes. They're just a lot of fun.

They're a lot of energy.

And sometimes you'll get nine of them. Sometimes the students pass. We've got 12, 13, 14 of them. They just kind of do a call out and then they all figure it out when they get up on the stage. They do a great job. So it's fun.

Pony rides. Not only did we speak to Pam Schwartz on April 21st, we talked to her yesterday. So she's good to go. She's going to come out and take a look at the at the event space, just make sure she can do it. She's going to be in the Western part for the kids area. So she's going to come check it out, make sure she can get her trailer in and out. Upper limits here, Jolly Jumps, they just sent over their lineup today. So we're just going to need to review that. Clowns, good to go. As you know, Juggling Jeff is unable to attend this year.

I can think of a certain term.

A swap for a swap? Sponsorships, good to go. Our booths have now all closed. So our booth commitments, you can see 2026 versus 2025. Artists, 44 versus 37 last year. Author, one this year versus two last year. Seven non-profits this year, nine last year. And one government agency. this year and last year. So we're getting ready to get booth spaces lined up, figuring all that out. West News Magazine, we kind of talked about, we met with them July 29th and planned the pullout issue. There are a couple of things like Director Boonage said, the Grand Marshals, we got to give them that information. Let's say the date will be in the August 19th issue. and the two-page spread in the September 9th issue. So that'll come out before Celebrate Wellwood, get everybody time to get it on their schedules. Social media, we're going to have to work on that. We do have our yard signs, and they do say this Saturday. So we'll put them up. If you guys would like a yard sign, we'll have those at the next meeting. You've got a good spot to put those up. um local tv news networks dawn did reach out i think to them she reached out to like all the major news clients just to see if we could get get it on there and that's the first time we've done that at least well we've been around so we'll see if we get anybody to bite on that you know what i can check with the gal at joy fm oh yeah because they do stuff yeah let me try and get a hold of joy fm

Whatever we can do.

Dawn's a little bulldog, too, so she may give us something. Yes. Event poster and program. As you know, we have those, and I think Ms. Chiansky's got some little postcards over there that we did. Just if you guys know of any little spot to stick them at your favorite store, your favorite little eatery, and they'll take them to put them on the counter or something, feel free to grab some of those and take them with you. Light pole banners.

Yay!

If you drove in here tonight? Yeah, they're up. That's cool. They're up. The only ones that are not up yet are the tower because we have to get a scaffolding to get those up. So we have that pending.

But all the rest of them are up.

So the tan color ones are just the event banners. The green ones are sponsors. The list proud sponsor or premier sponsor are premieres. Not only do those go up on the stage at the event, They also have a banner out there now. So they are recognized as well. And they are in the roundabout at Taylor in Manchester. So you'll see those green. All eight of them are down there. So they're out and about, up nice and early. So some good advertisement for our wonderful sponsors. OK, the last page. Natalie.

Just so you know, we're putting four at the corners at the farmer's market area. Okay, cool. Okay.

Good advertisement. Great. You'll see a new layout sheet back here in the back of your update packet, which is kind of accurate. So with much discussion about how the layout was drafted before versus you're kind of seeing it now um we had the artists and crafters and sponsor vendors around the oval and the concern um in the food behind city hall the concern with that is six o'clock when the vendors are getting ready to wrap up and they need to load up and load out that's the main that's where everybody's going to be correct yeah that's where everybody is so our concern was people driving where everybody's walking. So we kind of rethought it, went back to Mr. Keitel. Well, first we went into Joe's office on a Friday afternoon and said, sorry, sorry, but we got this idea to see if we could swap it up a little. So little booths up here in front of city hall so right out here in the street we're proposing to have the artists and crafters and sponsors out front so as we did down at the corner where we had everybody in the street all the those vendors and they packed up at six o'clock and went on about their way it wasn't pretty much everybody cleared the street then everybody's packing up you don't have people walking around you don't have driving There were some obviously in the green space as well, but there's just so much activity we believe that's going to be happening over here that it's just a little scary. We think it might've got bottlenecked. So we think in the front of city hall, just as it was down there might be a good spot. The garage will still be accessible. The officers can close off the street. So nobody's going to get in there during the shopping hours. They can help us with getting everybody in and out.

Got any comment about that? I think it's a good consulate. Plus people, when they buy things, you know, if they have their kids, they're going to go up and do their things on their way out. They can go pick up their stuff and that kind of thing too.

It's a draw. You're going to get out there. Everybody's going to pass by there. So it's still part of everything. And then with the food vendors, we think we can get them all around the oval. Not necessarily around the oval, but we have some space over here. I don't know if you guys know where the big tree is over there. On the southernmost part, there's a little grassy area over there. We do have some that we think will wrap around this back end of the oval. And some of these food vendors, Union Baptist Church, the barbecue society, they have got to have stuff behind them. The smokers, the fryers that cannot be under a tent. So they need space. And it is just a little scary how this was all going to work in the back parking lot. So the beer tent, it's, it's just, people need some space. Some are in a 10 by 10. It's that's wonderful. Tamale man, 10 by 10. Okay. Easy. Like he doesn't need a bunch of stuff behind him, but a lot of these, it's part of their whole thing. They can't, they're set up. Yeah. They can't have, you know, you can't have the union Baptist church without their friars. So you have to make some sort of adjustments. So even though you see food vendors still over there in the parking lot, they will be around here and they'll kind of be over, you know, some will be by the kids area, but they'll still be there and they are there till 930. So when it's time to close up shop, okay, people are going to be heading out. They can drive out. So we're not, I think it's less risk of bottlenecking, anybody getting in front of a vehicle, anything like that. So And like I said, ponies will be over there in the most western edge. Beer tent, we were discussing with Mr. Marshall the other day how much room they're going to need behind their dining tent will be there in that spot right there. So that's porta potties. Porta potties will be, we believe, behind here, behind City Hall. We also try to put some over in the children's area so they don't, they can, That's a good idea.

I think we discussed. I thought about accessibility issues.

So City Hall will be open down here with the plein air going on. We may want to put some down here as well. So we.

Accessible parking is. We've got to avoid it as much as we can. I figured out the accessible parking that we will. Sergeant Grace had a good idea of maybe having that over the west slot of the theater. They'll provide shuttle or will provide shuttle if people need to get from point A to point B. We can make that work. So we're working on that part still. And also the other thing, We've talked about is some of the vendors after the concerts over in the conclusion of the fireworks. We can take them out. Press you drive to Not that it's a public street, but we have rights to it. And this is our event. So some of them can go west. Some can go east. We can break it up and hopefully get everybody in and out.

Jolly jumps.

Take that out right there. So after they're done at the end of their ships, go out. They don't have to come. No, that makes sense. That's what I'd do.

Pony safer. Yeah, the ponies.

Definitely.

Yeah, I would send that all out to Crestview, yeah. A lot safer.

So all in all, I tip my hat to Chris and Stacey because they figured out a solution to what was probably a flawed layout when we presented it to you. So my apologies. This makes sense.

Still a little fluid. You'll learn a lot after the first year.

Right. If anybody has any questions?

No. I've probably said this multiple times and you'll hear me say it again. The old dream was premise. Main Street being constructed. And it's not. And that's why we're kind of scrambling a bit. I don't know if it'll be 2027 or not. I think this layout, minus the accessible parking, is actually a good approach. So hopefully you agree.

Oh, yeah. So where do the golf carts park after the parade?

We're talking about that as well. No. I'm going to send everybody up out in place between the hotel and Milk and Honey. There's parking there by Miami-Dade Plaza Drive or Old City Hall. There's parking up by the Plaza because the Farmer's Market won't be there.

Farmer's Market, so that's good.

We're going to break them off before they get down too far.

There's a lot of parking at the hotel up above. And then

He used to use the back of the theater lot, but that may still be an option. I'm not sure. We just talked about it this afternoon.

So I think the concern there is, as you guys know, as the parade comes through, all the foot traffic follows them. So if the parade goes into the theater lot and then they have to leave, they're driving through all that foot traffic. That's our chief concern. So anybody, busloads of nuns, kids, and puppies. Good morning.

What if it's just bad people?

And these folks did the wrong idea of marketing, so. I was not a bad person.

And Chris didn't mention, but I have it on good advice that it's going to be about 75. Just a beautiful day. Awesome.

We don't have to do the ritual sacrifice this year. That's so nice. So good. Okay. Well, it sounds like we're ready for item E. We just started. We just took one of our sheets and started the volunteer thing, but I'll float around the whole time. So if anybody can't make a time slot because I took it, just let me know and I'll be around.

I'm sure the last item is chance to kind of already started it, so they promote online. You talked about selling them. Being able to use those as part of our advertisement. Does that change? Or do you still think that's something you want us to do? Because we didn't start promoting it on the website. Any thoughts? Yeah, we're As I say, before you leave tonight, you can take it back in the storeroom, get you some sweatshirts, the nice sweatshirts. You have the badge already. Put it over the frozen feet half marathon. There you go.

Always thinking. With all the foot almost marathon.

But then again, Madam Chair, we've had a layout that Joe thought was good that probably wouldn't kill people. Right. We're not thinking all over the place.

We all looked at it and went, hey. Nobody else was like, hey, this is still good.

You guys are all puppies in patent candy.

You'll keep the people alive.

Okay, is there anything else? All right, our next meeting date and the last one before our very exciting event will be September 2nd at 6 p.m. With that, I'll take a motion to close. Made by Commissioner Silverman, seconded by Council Liaison Robleski. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstain.

Thank you for your evening. Have a great rest of the week. Thank you.