Planning Commission - Special Meeting

We ready? We are ready. All right, let's go ahead and call our festival meeting to order.

Okay, very quickly here. Um, you have Oops. Did I Hold still. It's on It's on my desk. Anyway, you guys have 17 scholarships to go through, so that's good. So, we need um the winner by April the 13th. So, if you guys could be looking at that um trash boxes, the pricing for that was um 613 with printing, 586 without. So, if they're printed, it's going to be $7,356. That's only $10 less than what they the sponsor paid for the last name. I thought it would be a little bit more cheaper because of the print plates were paid for, but I don't know if it's the the uh cost of the boxes, but then Denny also said that the cost may go up if we don't get them. So, I haven't talked to haven't talked to Danny yet because I just got the pricing um this weekend. So, um, hopefully don't want to sponsor him.

Yeah, it would be nice to see if he could increase his sponsorship some so that way we could clear more. I mean, either way, it's helpful, right? Because we're covering the cost of the boxes, right? But if we could more than cover that, that would be helpful, I think. I don't know. It's kind of my thought. I'll try and get him. What's the cost without the the printing? Without is $7,32. Okay. If he chooses not to sponsor at all, he chooses not the sponsor and we can't find another sponsor. That's what we will be paying. Okay.

So, even if he does cover the even if he does the 73, that's paying that's paying for the boxes. Our boxes. Okay. So, um have another um one last um entertainer. His name is Teague Hol and he would be um a country singer. That's the only one we haven't booked yet as far as country goes. He is 18. Oh, he's probably 19 now, but he won artist of the year through the Grand Old Opry of Nashville. And um he is really good. Um he went to um he was at festival or um Fischer Festival Freedom Freedom

Freedom Festival is what I'm trying to say. Really nice guy. But anyway, he's got a he's got a nice group. He's got um so they give me a good price of 2200. So if you guys are okay with me booking that, I'll go ahead and book him and then that'll be Is that Saturday? Um yes. Yes. Is that That's pretty much in line with No. Um or a little more.

Yes. Yeah, it's less. A little bit less. We were able to get them a little bit less. They're actually ing from um up north and they're going to be heading down this way. So, so um I'll go ahead and book them if you guys are okay with that. Applications have been mailed out. We're getting um applications back. ID tags will be ordered and ready to go. Um we're still working on sponsors right now. So far, we've um um we've got 8,500 in the sponsorship stats have come in. That's not what's promised. So, um, so we're still working on our sponsorships. Um, and actually everything's just kind of like restrooms are scheduled, you know, kids, all that kind of stuff. So, unless there's something that you guys are wondering about, I know Oh, go ahead. I don't think so.

Um Oh, yeah. Yeah. And the I don't know. I mean, I've talked to her several times about there's been people that have come in here interested in actually um doing something with the barbecuology and I've given them um I've emailed her their name and nothing's Nothing's come from that. Is it wine and beer? I don't know. You're saying for the festival, somebody else doing wine and beer other than them. That's what that's what you're asking. Anybody doing it because so many of these festivals they'll offer that we need something to pull that in.

There's there's a lot of local producers. I think there's like the winery in Noblesville and one in Sheridan. And we love to have that on town property. Yeah. Okay. We'd have to get a liquor license. But yeah, I mean you want me to contact I think if I'm open to any more information is better than less. Okay. So I would be happy to learn more about Yeah, I'd be happy to learn Yeah. I'd be happy to learn what options exist if there are any and then we could discuss it further, you know. winery. They're one of our sponsors. Yeah,

they they come. They're they winery, you know. Do they do beer now? Oh, they don't produce it, but they Oh, they have it there. They have wine there. They don't produce it. I I would say we should pursue that and put it in the park, but by the hospitality tent or in the hospitality if we're going to do it and not put it out on Maine, but put it near the music and the get people to go over there. That's the reason I wondered if at the barbecue place is kind of off center, but

there'd be a big space for it. Well, I know Steve Plumbers talked about it before as well because they have that garden area out back. But in any case, I think it if we're looking local art to me, that's kind of fits into that some kind of a locally produced crafted product, you know. Yeah, I appreciate

uh at least finding out about it and see what our options are. I think that'd be great. Okay. And then there is I think I put this in the packets last um meeting. Um Troy Ferguson. Did I put the email for you guys on that? I don't understand.

Maybe I saved it for this meeting. Yes. Okay. So Troy Ferguson, he bought Aling's house down here on the corner and he deals with um antiques. He's come in here several times and um was wanting to actually I told him he'd be glad we'd be glad to have him at a meeting and he could sit down with you guys, but he changes his he he changes, you know, his stories from different different times. I don't I don't know what his He said he's he's wanting to bring antiques in. I told him I said I said that would be wonderful. We love antiques. I said you know we've tried an antique alley before and I said what we ran into was people antiques they first of all they didn't want them on an out show outside

outdoor show because of the weather. Sure. you know, and then you get to with antiques, there's a lot of little things. They just didn't want to, you know, the one year we did it, we Yeah. One year we did it, we had um four that were that were together and and which was really nice. But he is wanting to use the house down here and he's wanting to put antiques all around it, but he's wanting us to give him eight spots out front so people can see it. And I said, 'Well, that's like $1,600. I said, you know, are how are we going to make up our money that way? And he said, 'Well, you just have to be open mind.

If you sure if people if people see the if people see the antiques, then you know that's going to, you know, I don't think he realizes the exposure that he has on the main street side, right? Mike Alvin's always had that all open over there with they took the fence down and I mean great exposure. Well, and he he was hoping that there would be some antique people here this evening for the meeting. So, and he's not here. So, I'm just letting you know that he's been in here several times talking about this, but um is that a Main Street address or is that a main street address? So, they wouldn't get a reserve spot, right? Uh

they get one they they they got one on the on Broadway Street. They always had one on Broadway Street and then we found out years ago that they were subleting. We didn't realize it and you can't do that. So we they don't get they they didn't want it. So they sell they didn't want so so they do not have over there. Well, in any case, I think eight spots is a no-go. I think I mean I don't see that being viable. I don't see us giving them any spots as being uh a viable option.

And I don't I don't know what case you can make for one vendor over another getting a free spot. So, he does own the property. Correct. Yeah. Wouldn't you get spot one? Correct. That's it. The problem. But isn't it typically the if you're on the street? I don't know. I guess that's a kind of a gray area and we can accommodate. Maybe it makes sense. But like I'm not even sure we technically are on the spot because they're on Main Street and they don't have any access problems to their property and they've got frontage on Main Street that they can use to sell whatever they want.

That's true. But in any case, if we I'm open to the argument of giving him one, but I don't think anything beyond that's certainly not reasonable. No. So, okay. Well, if he comes in, we'll see. We'll see if he comes in or he calls again. But I like the idea of somebody trying to bring in. I think it makes some sense. Yeah. Yeah. So, and there's decent access there. If somebody bought a big item, they could just wheel it down just a block away from the street closure. So, That probably works that out pretty well. Yep. Okay. So, we'll see if they, like I said, back. So, other than that, Ryan's here tonight. Ryan, do you have anything? Sure. You ready for me?

Unless they have other questions for me. Turn it over to you.

Uh, I appreciate the the opportunity. Um, I had a chance to review your last festival meeting from February, which I think was the last meeting that you guys had. I know there was a lot of questions that were raised during that meeting. I had an opportunity to briefly talk with Mr. Calhoun um about a few of those and so I I would be remiss if I didn't come here this evening and try to address some of those questions um that seem to be lingering. Um wouldn't be a very good coworker or friend if I if I didn't do that because it seems to be a lot of misconceptions and confusion. So, just take a couple minutes and try to clear up some of that confusion as I see it. Um, so there were some questions about who I worked for. Um, so prior to um March 17th of 2021, I worked for the sheriff's office. Um, I served two roles. I was the purchasing agent um for the sheriff, direct report to the sheriff, and I also served in the reserve division. Uh, I rose to the rank of a lieutenant. Um, and so we staffed this festival event here for many years and I was was the guy that did that for uh on and off at at different points. Um, so I can remember the first time we did it or that I was responsible um was many years ago that they had um um either terminated or the or the town marshal had quit um shortly before the festival. We were contacted about a week prior um by the then board president um who's no longer here uh in that capacity and we we filled that role. They hired a town marshal I think like two days before the festival and we kind of worked together and and made it happen. Then we weren't used for a couple years and then we were again um and brought in uh when they dissolved the police department. Um so I did that job or jobs all the way up through March 17th of 2021. March 18th of 2021, I was sworn in

the Arcadia Police Department as a as a reserve uh town marshal. Okay. Um in June of 21, I was hired at the 911 center in Hamilton County. Uh since then, the 911 center emergency operations is what it's now called. So 911, EMA, uh and public safety training are now one division. And I work for the executive director in in my full-time capacity. So, my full-time capacity, I work for the emergency operations and in a part-time role, I work for the town of Arcadia. Um, uh, outside of that, I have a few other jobs. I work for a very large, um, uh, entertainment company that's based out of Los Angeles. They have venues and locations, quite frankly, all over the world. Um, they have one here in in Noblesville. It's the it's the closest venue. Uh, and I've been there 30 years uh, this month. Um, so I got a little bit of experience dealing with large crowds, got a little bit of experience dealing with festivals and music shows and and you name it. Um, so that's what kind of maybe uniquely positions me to try to help you guys with your festival. Um, so I I think that might clear up hopefully that clears up my employment. Um, if it doesn't, it's certainly on the record now. So, uh, should be pretty pretty rock solid, pretty clear if there's any confusion there. Um, I think Mr. Johnson, you asked a question uh during the meeting and yep, you did. Um, one of the questions you asked was, can is there somebody else in the game? Basically, is there somebody else that could do the the job? Uh, and and the answer is yes. I am not aware of anything that requires requires you or or this group uh to to pick us to provide those services. Um, so if it if if you want to use somebody else, I think you're absolutely uh free to do that. There's there's nothing that binds you to to specifically use this group.

Um the question was, can it be security guards? And and the answer is yes, it can be. Would I recommend that? I would not recommend that. But but the answer is yes. Um there Indiana code does provide direction u for these types of events. Uh specifically the code is uh 164122. 164122 provides real clear direction as to what you're technically required under the code to provide and it could be security or it could be police. Um I think that code specifically might provide some general direction. It might answer some of these questions for you all. Um there there may be a a basis that you would want that to be reviewed by your attorneys to to determine whether or not you're you're required uh to follow it. Uh as I read it, I would tell you technically you're probably supposed to follow it.

Um I think your festival comes after there's a date certain and based on what I can discern when this festival started, I I think you're within the date range. Um, and there's some exclusions and I don't think you fall within that exclusion. So, I mean, technically, as Ryan reads it, um, I think it provides some, uh, I think it's it's something you're probably technically supposed to follow. Even if you didn't technically have to follow it and you wanted to assume that somebody scholarly wrote it, okay, that somebody that knew what was happening, uh, constructed the code, it does have some a good basis. It does cover things like the number of portalletes, the number of parking spaces for disabled folks, the number of police officers that you should have, the number of physicians, nurses, ambulances, it it generally outlines um those conditions. So even if you even if your attorney came back and said, "We don't think we need to follow it." I think if you just take it on its surface and say that it was scholarly, somebody somebody wrote it that kind of knew what was happening, I think it might help answer some of the questions. It might tell you that you're doing you're doing it right or maybe not doing it the way that somebody else thought you should do it. Okay. Um but it does outline the number of police officers uh that you're that you should be uh employing. And so again, if if we made the if we made the argument and said uh that it was correct based on the own numbers that you guys put forward, you guys put forward numbers that that suggest there's approximately 100,000 people that come to the festival. So if we take 100,000 and we divide that by two, 50,000 a day, it tells us that we should have 66.6 officers working each day. 750 officers, excuse me, one officer for every 750 persons. Now, we

could maybe argue and say there's not 50,000 people here all at one particular time, which I would agree that that's that's probably a a good uh concept that not everybody is here at the exact time, but it doesn't really provide for that. It it says one for 750. So, if we just do the basic math based on the basic numbers, 66.6 officers a day. We didn't have 66.6 officers working here during the festival. It suggests that you should have a physician and a nurse here. I don't remember that happening. Um, so, so there's some general guidance, right? Um, I just give you that as maybe you're doing it right. Okay. Um, maybe it was right sized, meaning it was the right number of people for the conditions that existed. Um, I don't have all the answers. I just can give you what's what's on the surface. I can tell you that that again, I work for a large uh a large company and and we um strive for that number. Um, but that's a that's a difficult number. Okay. Um, finding 66.6 six people to work here would be very very complicated even if you could afford it which I don't know that you can I don't know that I could come up with 66.6 six people. Okay. Um, we gave a number last year uh that we thought that it would cost. We came in under that number. Would we have would could we have got to that magic number? Yes, we could have. Uh, but I I think it would have taken many more weeks of phone calls and favors to get enough staffing to get us to that magic number. So, we didn't. Did we have enough? Yes. Would have loved to had just a couple more people? Yes. Um, but we brought them in from literally all over all the surrounding agencies

plus our agency. Um, and and that's what it took in order to in order to cover that. I know there seem to be some confusion about that at various points, but could I have got to that magic number? Yes. Would I have liked to had just a couple more guys? Yeah, absolutely. Uh, but would have been very very complicated to get there. Um, so I just I just give you that as a I I know that there's some comments about the the rate of pay. Um, and I'll just I'm I am brutally honest with everyone here. Many of you have known me for for a long time. Um, that rate uh that we set uh I know it was a sticker shock. I know you had a sweetheart deal for a long time. Okay. I negotiated that sweetheart deal for you in my previous life. And we were able to take a couple of those sweetheart deals and push them together. Uh meaning there there were similar events throughout the county and we were able to to take that we were able to staff it and take the revenue that was gained from that and and made a nice Christmas uh for those uh volunteer police officers for those reserve deputies. That was a different time that when we first started working here, guys, we we had 40 rostered reserve deputies.

Y now, uh I think they have 11 and it might be lower than 11 at the sheriff's office. We we have that at the town of Arcadia. Okay. So, it's a dying breed. Finding people to come and volunteer their time is a dying breed. And if you don't believe me, in the words of a famous football coach, Google it. Um, uh, Google it. Uh, because it is volunteer fire services are closing every day. Um, all across the world, they just don't exist. Finding somebody to come and drive the truck out during the day doesn't exist. Same thing happens on the on the police side. You know, these guys, they uh, they would lay down their lives for every person in this room, the ones that are still there. Um, but a lot of people don't like them. Um, and they don't get get compensated a lot. It's very little compensation. Um, and it's a it's a dying it's a dying breed. So, so having 40 rostered people that made it possible to staff this event, not possible. Um, it's just it's just not possible today. Uh, even if I was in my previous role, I I don't think that we could staff that with that sweetheart deal. Uh, and so again, I was the guy that negotiated that. I I it wasn't much of a negotiation. we just it was kind of that was the rate. Um but it worked and it worked for a long time. Um it doesn't work today. Um that hourly rate is I will tell you as I know it's a sticker shock and I know there's gasp and there is um emotion um from various people uh it's a very low rate. Um in order for us to get people there um I will tell you they're probably giving up an opportunity to go and work somewhere else uh for a higher wage. But if you work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, you make that's a pretty good little part-time gig for a couple days. Um, it's not overly complicated. It's not overly challenging. It's a little bit of heat. Sometimes you got to direct a

little traffic. You might have to pick up, you know, somebody that fell on the ground. You might have to do some things that you're not exactly accustomed to. Um, but it's not a bad it's not a bad thing. Um, so I just tell you that that that rate is low. Uh, and that's part of the reason why it was a challenge for us to find the ones that we did because you can go on a Sunday morning and you can go to any church, quite frankly, south of 266th Street

and make $80 an hour or $100 an hour and not be in a uniform and not be dragged in traffic or stung by the bees or anything else. So, it's a low rate. I know it's a high rate. I know there's there's gasp about that, but even surrounding uh counties, they quite frankly they pay a lot more. There's festivals here that pay more than that per hour. So, I I'm only telling you that just to I'm trying to put some context in it. I know there's I know there's opinions and there's emotions about that, but um there there was a sticker shock. 100% get it. We set a number. We thought that that was a reasonable number. uh we thought we could staff it to for the most part like we thought we could staff it. We did. We did a good job of staffing that um based on your own, you know, emissions that you saw the police and somebody got threatened to be arrested for moving a barricade and that'd be interesting. But um we'll go with it. Um and uh I think I think you saw a visible police force out there. So, I think we tried to do a pretty good job um holistically. Um as far as the um uh the the I think the maybe it's a little bit of confusion on shop for kids um is a is a nonprofit organization that takes kids shopping um in the wintertime. Uh they don't offer any type of they don't staff events in lie of paying the officer. You know, there's a donation. I think I think maybe that's what some people thought. It's two separate distinct things. Um they we we raise money. Uh I'm I'm the treasurer for the shop for kids organization. Um we raise money. We take kids shopping and Christmas. We we don't really staff festivals or parades or anything like that. It's just it's just not something that we do. We we have officers and troopers and uh deputies from surrounding agencies that help work that event. Um so again, I hope that one

kind of clears that one up. Um, and I think um the uh um again some some conversation about I know we addressed it after the festival um in 25 uh there was some evidence um that was presented of three people riding around on a golf cart and um in fact the picture that was presented um wasn't of a police officer. Um, and I I'm not I'm not going to call you out, but I'm going to call you out. It was Chris. It was a It was a town board member and he was on a golf cart. It wasn't a police officer. Um, if somebody's upset that Chris was on a golf cart on a town golf cart, my response to that is don't elect him next time. That's my response to that. Um, it do I care that there was three police officers on a cart on the surface? No, I don't. Um, do I think that it was something that occurred every day and all day long? No. Is there an opportunity that they were moving one of our assets around? Were they Were they going to open and close barricades? Was this at Was this at 6:00 and we were going to open all the roads and somebody was jumping off and and I I don't know because I don't Nobody called me then when it happened. There wasn't a picture of it where I could ask him. But again, on the surface, I don't we don't care. Um, most of those carts aren't really equipped to be road three. It's not real comfortable. Uh, most of our guys are not the smallest people in the world. So, I don't think that it occurred all the time. Um, is it possible? It is. It is 100% possible, but uh but again, not something that's really in our in our plan to do. Um, and so I know there was some conjecture about that, but as the guy that was was responsible um that day, it wasn't something that we intentionally did. Um, but on but again on the same token, I'm

not sure that I'm totally real worried about it. Um, uh, the uh the meals that were provided, lot of lot of conversation in these last two festival meetings about it. So, I will attempt to set this one straight 100%. Um, I I'm going to say that uh those meals have been provided since I've been doing this. I tried to I tried to count how many years. I don't I don't know. I can only tell you who was the board president when I first did it. Um, and I guess we could try to figure it out from that date, but it's been many years. And I can tell you every year we have supplied a list. It was Robin, now it's Jennifer. Um and and they were uh they were gracious to pick those items up for us. Um in my previous life, the cost was split between the sheriff uh and the town. Uh so the sheriff paid for some of it and the town paid for some of it. I can tell you last year the town paid for some of it and we personally paid for some some of it. We went and and picked up items and contributed to the cause. Um and I know there's a lot of a lot of conversation about it. Um, let me give you the empirical reason. Let me let me tell you why we do it. I I told you earlier that not everybody likes the police. Fundamentally, sometimes people do things with they don't have great intentions. Okay? I can't validate the chicken and rice that was cooked on Bain Street on Friday. I can validate the biscuits and gravy that were cooked at the firehouse on Saturday morning. I can't validate the ribeye sandwich. I can validate the walking taco on Sunday. Okay. And so we provide something that the staff can can come and eat. It's not just cops. I know there was that that conversation. It was just the cops. It's not just the cops. There's cops in there. There's firemen in there. Uh

there's there's town employees that are in there. Uh there's state troopers. There's Department of Natural Resource officers. the cadetses, the the fire cadetses that that man the trailer on Main Street, uh they come down um residents, uh festival goers that fall out, you know, they come there because they not feeling well sometimes, they just need a granola bar and you give them 20 minutes in the air conditioning and they're back out buying tube socks on Main Street. And I I say that I know that sounds a little flippant, but that's the reality. Sometimes we can just we don't need to take them to the hospital. we can give them a granola bar, right? A little air conditioning, a bottle of water. Uh, and so I would tell you that those those costs are not 100% exclusively bared by the town. Uh, they are there are there are things that are split. Um, you know, we we provided water and Gatorade and breakfast items. Some people do choose to go over to Jennifer's. Uh, and she graciously allows everybody to come in. Uh, but a lot of people do eat there. Do we prohibit our people from going and eating on Main Street? No. Have I in the x number of years gone and gotten a corner of the cob? Yes. Do I do it on Saturday? No. Do I do it on Sunday morning? No. I do it Sunday right before they close just in case I should happen to fall out. Again, we didn't have a hund we didn't have a a bunch of extra people. So, if a bunch of people get sick, it hurts us, right? We we can't really afford to have people getting sick because they got a bad batch of chicken and rice. They're adults. I can't I can't force them not to do it, but if we provide them a lunch, we provide them a deal a dinner, it's pretty safe. And I also tell you that we have people here around the clock. So, not a lot of dining options here in the town proper um you know, of an evening. So, they can go there and make themselves a sandwich or reheat something. Um and it gets them through the night, right? That way they don't have to necessarily leave town. They're

they're readily accessible. Um we had people here you know, 24 hours a day. Um, and so I I I don't know. I I can't tell you what the cost is. Jennifer, I'm sure, has receipts and everything anybody wants. Uh, but I don't think there was anything um I don't think there was anything to pulling wool over anybody's eyes. Uh I again I said when I opened my remarks that I didn't want um I wouldn't be a very good friend or coworker if I didn't address it because I think that sometimes people give a perception um that they did something wrong that you did something wrong because you had a walking taco at the fire station. Well, none of those guys that worked uh we didn't have any gals. So I'll just say guys uh that worked um did anything wrong. they they what was provided to them that some of them contributed things um and um it's a tradition that's been going on for a long time and so so that's the reason that we do it is because we can't validate what's out there. I can validate what's at the firehouse pretty pretty much can validate what's at Jennifer's house too. I I don't think she's going to do any uh harm to any of us. Um so I hope that helps answer some of those questions. um and um and maybe just provides a little bit of clarity. Uh again, if you all choose as a group not to fund that, that that's your prerogative. Um I I would ask that you tell us sooner than later so we can figure out what we're going to do. Our intent would be to continue. We we'll have to make some decisions. Um I'm not trying to put you in a corner, not trying to be u uh to create conflict. Uh but it is just it just something that we need to know. Um and and I think the the last thing that I would say is you know just a lot of emotion about there there's a lot of emotion and I know um you know Fred's been emotional and um

and Jennifer's been emotional um at different times and there it's because uh there's pride. Take pride in what you got going on here and I don't have any skin in the game. I don't live in town. Um I live in Fisers. I come up here because I've known many of you for a long time. Try to provide a service. I think I do a good job. If I don't, that's fine. U we'll find somebody else to do it. Um it's no sk it's no skin off my back. Uh but at no point do I believe that Fred or Jennifer ever stole one red nickel from this festival. Period. Period. I wouldn't associate with them if I thought that anything to the contrary of that. There's there's comments about their parking. I would tell you that there's probably more people that park in their field that don't pay that do pay. And I know that because we send them over there. And that's no different than Johnny Johnny's house. You know, a lot of people don't know that he parks all the disabled people there. I know that because I'm the guy. Uh I'm the guy. So when the people come in and they need a wheelchair accessible spot, I send them to Johnny's house and Johnny makes it happen just like Jennifer and Fred do. Period. Absolutely. 110% don't believe uh are are they are they benefiting? Yeah, but they bought a they bought a lot just like anybody else could free citizens to do that. And so um you know it's like I said um it's kind of bothered me for the last couple months. Um so I'm going to I'm going to tell you what I think and um I think I did that pretty pretty good and um if anybody has any questions for me I I'll be happy to take them. But hopefully I gave you some I gave you some uh some wisdom and some direction and maybe something you can go back and research at a later date.

Thank you Ryan. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Ryan, you sticking around for a few minutes? Sure. I have some numbers you want me to give them now. You are fine.

Whatever you want to do. I I after the last couple meetings, I started looking into uh the festival as a profit. Um were we making money on the festival? What were we spending money on at the festival? How could we run the festival better? Um the the one issue that I think everybody has to understand to understand these numbers is the festival is a bucket in the budget. It's not just a festival. So when you say it's the festival fund, that's not the festival. Um, we have something a line item in the budget that says the festival. I don't know what number it is or even what the proper name of it is, but it's the festival fund. We bring in money from the festival. We spend money to run the festival and that's a number and that's the number I was interested in. What does it take to put How much do we bring in? How much do we spend to bring that money in? What's that number? What's our profit? That's not the only thing that's in the festival fund. Throughout the whole year, we spend money out of that fund for the town because the festival is a fundraiser. We spend that money on tree trimming. We spend it on sidewalks. We whatever we spend it on comes out of that budget. But that's not a line item that is festival related. So, and this is no, I mean, I'm not saying anything bad about Jennifer. I'm saying that's the way it's done. Um, but what I've tried to do to to figure out are we really making any money or are we not making money

is to to separate the things that don't have anything to do with the festival. And I we Jennifer and I have talked and we've kind of come up with a another another name to put on them to nonfestestival other because everything else just went under other. So, uh I've been working with Jennifer. I've got 2025 pretty button down. 2024 is close and 2023 I'm still working on. Um but in 2025 we brought in $91,893.50 and the festival related expenses were $74,0469 for a profit of $17,888.81. That's what the festival brought in total. So then if you look at computer's going stop it. Um what we spent on other things throughout the year were $6,600 worth of things that had nothing to do with running the festival. That was just tree trimming in April or you know whatever we decided to spend money on came out of that fund. So, if you total it up, it kind of looks like we didn't really make all that much. If you take that 6,000 out, it would say, "Oh, you only made about $10,000." No, we made about 18. And that's and that's looking at 2024, that number was 196. Um, but we spent a whole lot of money out of that fund that had nothing to do with the festival. that was almost $25,000 worth of of money came out of it because there was money in it. Um, and that that did a lot of good around town. Uh, but it really didn't have anything to do

with what the festival did. So, as a as a festival, we're making about 18 to $20,000 a year from what I can see. Um, I went back and I looked at every receipt in 2025 that was on other that that wasn't specifically marked out. Uh, spent a day with Jennifer and I didn't see anything that caused concern. I didn't see I mean I saw the food that you were talking about. Um, everything to me uh looked above board and it matched what the numbers were on the fund report. So, um, from what I can tell, I don't I mean, I have a degree in math. I don't have a degree in finance. So, from what I can tell, and my wife can tell, who does have a degree in finance, everything's fine. We're making money on the festival. Um, I'm trying to break it down more um as to what we are actually spending the money on for supplies. And I was surprised. There's a whole lot of things we spend money on. uh stamps, envelopes, copy paper. I mean, just there's a ton of stuff. Um but anyway, I don't have 2023 done yet. I will try to get that done. Um Jennifer's been gone. I've been gone. So, we'll get that done and then I'll have a better report that I can hand out to everybody. But we are making money every year. Um, and I even even last year, you know, there were a lot of expenses that were higher than normal, but we had a lot more sponsors. So, so anyway, that's what I have. Anybody anybody has any questions, I mean, feel free to ask. I don't know if I can answer them, but

the only other the only other comment that I would make is that, and I I failed to do that, was

that number could be worse. And the reason it could be worse is that you don't pay for everything that's that's used. So every golf cart that we bring up, every message board sign that we bring up, every fire department QRV that gets brought up, you don't you're not paying for that. And that's something that's different than the other than the other place that I work for. You know, they're not afforded those luxuries. They they they rent. It looks like Sunb Belt exploded. um because it all has to get rented, right? Unless they unless they have the capital to buy the message board signs and the golf carts and the gators and all those things. And so I only say that is that yeah, you you rent let's say 12 carts, but reality is it's 24 carts is what you actually need, but 12 of them were begging and borrowing on both sides, the fire side and the police side um in order to do that. Um, so I I only tell you that is that it could be worse, right? You if you were truly trying to capture all of your expenses, then you would have to to you would have to look at that, too.

There are hidden expenses in there that we don't see. I mean, those those two message board signs on county line, they're not free. Is that part of the emergency management? No. Yeah. I mean it's it but again a a a private festival wouldn't really have access to you're in a you're uniquely positioned because you're because you're a town and you're the town is doing it. The town board serves on as the committee. Um you know most of the time this stuff would never make it to a a public meeting and the only reason it is is because of you guys and I mean that's why. So if this was a pri this was the pork festival um it it wouldn't be occurring in this setting

u per se right but they again those are those are deals that they work out um and I just tell you if you're truly trying to capture that number you know the barricades of the town the barricades from Typton County those would all be things that is that something we should be paying for I mean no I don't again I don't think you're doing anything wrong we we put in a request so like with all these other agencies. Uh, we put in a request just like the fire department does. Hey, Chief Mitchell from Noblesville Fire, can we borrow your your gator? Yep. And then, okay, can we borrow yours from Fischer's Fire and can we borrow yours from Westfield? And and it takes three or four of those in order to get enough that

the fire department has them. We do the exact same thing. Now, you know, we utilize the um the the golf cart in the in the um u K Cabota. Um last year uh we had one that died uh unfortunately. It just it is what it is. Um but we borrowed from you know other agencies in order to get us enough uh that that the guys could get around so that they weren't riding three to a golf cart every time. If if that becomes something that we need to pay for, let us know. I mean we we can factor that in and somehow manage it. But I just I just again I just thought it was it was something for your mind. Yeah. That that there's a there's hidden costs out there that we don't see.

Yeah. I mean I there was one year they needed barricades. Um and so under the cover of darkness they called and I brought them barricades and you know I mean just because you know because you know people you can make a phone call. So I I think there's some you know it's no different than putting a tent you know you have a tent on her property right? Most places you would have to rent that, right? Right. She's, you know, she allows you to do that. Yes. Okay. Thank you, Ron. Appreciate it. That's all I have. That's all. Well, thank you, Tim, for helping with numbers. I appreciate that. Is there a way to

He's doing graphs. He's doing graphs. Sure. Sure. Sure. Is there a way to uh create more categories that might make deciphering this at the end of the year a little bit easier? So, you know, you could have a bathroom one, you could have a food one, you could have a public safety like break down and add categories if we need to just to make it a little bit easier to line by line. Sure. And not necessarily because if you got a 100 different vendors, you can't have a hundred different categories, but can we say office supplies? Can we that's in there. We do have office. I guess the question is like if a lot ends up in other or miscellaneous or something like that like can we better can we add some categories

that might So out of out of the out of the $74,000 that we spent 4,000 of it was other. So that's a that's a small percentage. It's a small percent. Yeah. Um, but yes, that's what I went through was the other to say, "Okay, that was other, but it was festival other." Sure. And this was other, but it wasn't festival other. So, we added nonfestable other. Yeah. Into that category. But there's probably a couple more lines, but we got 13 of them now. Sure. So, it's pretty well broken down.

It's pretty well broken down. There may be a couple more we could add in there to that make sense, but I mean you don't really want to get too granular that but you need to make it understandable people go look at it. Um yeah I think I can talk to Jennifer and we I have some ideas for that we can make it a little more granular but I think that doesn't have to be a part of the the fund report though. I mean we that's because this is this all feeds back into that. So that's what she chose to state but this is completely different. Yeah. So

yeah the answer to your question is yes. I I don't I but I I am going to hope I've not thought anything's particularly wrong. I just have thought that it might be easier to uh to present the information in a way that's more more. Yes, totally agree with that because I just did it the way it was just all which was how it was. But but um I do like I like this better, you know. Yeah. But just trying to make it more accessible to some of them to look at and go, "Oh, I see what's going on." Rather than have to dig through it. you can avoid some uh questions or or make

some Yeah. Yeah. the things that should be obvious, make them obvious and then and then the questions that remain are probably questions that need to be asked and it's but set some minds at ease. Maybe

my computer's been stupid. Okay. Yeah. I I will have uh broken down a little bit more in the coming weeks. Uh um I don't know. Is there anything you guys want to know that we don't know? Like I don't know. Do you want to know like um the number of repeat vendors that we have or the kind of vendors? Does that make a difference to us at all? the number of total vendors, maybe paying vendors. I mean, that Oh, we've got all that.

That's that's pretty easy info, but that would be I can't remember if the the final the final report that might be something nice to put on there. I guess how many town vendors there were and how many private property vendors that permits were sold to. And that is on the report. Yeah, that's not the revenue is but just the number of these vendors, you know. Yeah, I I can do that which I Yeah, obviously this is easy math to do. I'm just trying to think about like how could you present something in the clearest way possible that that starts knocking off simple questions I guess just more detailed. Yeah,

more detail. Well, if anybody has, you know, if you have want to see something and you want something different, just tell me and I before I finish it all, we can add add it to to the graphs. And I'm a visual guy, so I like graphs. So, when it's all done, it'll have a lot of graphs in it to to show everything year-over-year growth. Is that is that I don't I don't know history. I've only been here 10 years, but is that seem shocking to pe everybody here that it's 20 grandish or in the past was it way more than that or I think there's been times in the past where it was significantly more. I can't remember. I'm thinking in the 40s.

Yeah. At one time. Y um and our expenses keep going up, but we've done very as those have increased exponentially, our our increases to booth and permit costs have been pretty n pretty nominal. So, um and and you know, you don't want to do a huge jump all at once because you might scare some people away. But I do think that we need to all be conscious of our expenses keep going up and so small increases more frequently are easier for people to absorb this year but

sure next year or the next year. Well, and here here's something that I found really interesting was, you know, we we were everybody was worried about the increase in in staffing police, but in in 2023, our expenses were 89,000. In in 2024, our expenses were 79,000 and then in 2025, they were 74,000 even with the increase of police. Yes. Where was 14 ring? Don't know. Oh well, I can tell you the numbers. Well, so far festival other I haven't done that yet.

Okay. On 2023. That might be one place where it's going. I It was because we did a lot of tree trim in 203 lot of our expenses for the festival. Well, I can tell you for they went down from 2024 to 2025. I can't tell you about 2023 yet. Okay. So, 2024 we spent more. Yes. In 2020, we spent $5,000 more in 2024 than we did in 2025. Did you buy supplies that carried you over the next year? So, that was probably trash boxes. That's four 5,000 because we buy in quantity that we had two years worth of trash boxes. So we deal with those

and that's how we buy. So trash uh is that on here? Trash removal. I don't see manifold. I don't see a number for any case. Oh, so that puts that probably makes both of those years about pretty Yeah. When you say that you average out of two years, they're probably the same then. Okay. I'll keep working on it. Appreciate it. Yeah. Sounds good. I ask what was the interest rate? It's 365. Yeah.

It was a,00 $83 or something. 11.89 was the for the month. For the month. Yeah. That's a month. Yeah. I'm sure.

Yes. All right. Any other questions or comments anything from any of you? All right. Well, I do want to say I you're the guy as far as I'm concerned. Like when you your absence was very noticed when you weren't here. Um, I was very surprised obviously at the increase in cost and I believe I was probably the one that suggested talking about the kids toys thing or whatever. That was a misunderstanding on my part as far as how that works or that charity works. Uh, the food thing I was my my personal thought was I don't know who or how many people are even eating it and if they are and we want to provide that. I mean I think I said this, can we do like a ticket to a vendor or something like that since they're already here serving food? your explanation makes some sense though. Um, so I just wanted to say that I I don't have any misgivings about your ability to kind of oversee this or organize it. I do think that it behooves us to to explore uh options if cost is a problem, but but I'm well aware of public safety employees overtime opportunities and uh and overtime rates too. So, uh, it doesn't surprise me that it's difficult even at that dollar amount to find people. So,

extremely, um, if honestly if I didn't have personal relationships and and Alex, um, I'm not sure we would have, you know, but we begged and borrowed and pleaded and, um, I mean, I got a few young guys that were there and and they were like, I had a great time. Great. See you next year. Um, so I I appreciate your comments and I mean they, you know, they they know they watch this, they hear it and so I don't want them to walk away believing that there was anything that they did anything wrong. I don't think they did. And it was it was notable again like the um

well I mean my specific example was people driving through the festival. I've seen that the last few years. I didn't see it this year. So the the not only the increased presence but also the expectations I believe on the people that were working were were more in line with our needs.

Yeah. We try to make sure that they uh know what's going on and that they're well briefed and they're visible and they're out. Do do they go and take breaks? Yep. Do they do they walk main street? Do they ride a cart sometimes? Yep. But but being out there and being visible and being proactive hopefully just sets the um you know the minds that you know some some of what we do is is a placebo.

You know there's not necessarily always somebody where you think they are but we may be where you don't think that we are. Um so you know I would just encourage us to this group just be mindful of that. You know if we're going to talk about staffing level and things we should probably do that and in an executive session and not in a public meeting and you know just things like that are are probably a good idea. Um but that's that's your prerogative. So Ryan, I'd like to say that working with you guys and I've worked with you for years. You're very organized. Sure.

I mean, you know, when when we email back and forth and and right away you answer my emails, we you know, and and I do appreciate that. that we've always worked well together. You guys have always been very very organizable. Yeah. I mean, we we try um we try to be responsive and um you know, again, just try to provide a good service and

it's fine. If there's another if there's another will, there's another way, that's fine. Uh there is really no skin off my back at all. And many of you have my personal cell phone number and you can call anytime if there's a question and you all know that. Those of you that have it know if you don't have it, you can get it from one of your colleagues. Um uh so you know I I know there was a couple years that I wasn't here and sounds like it was a little frustrating, but um I can't I can't speak to that that gap. I can only tell you what we're what we're doing now. So, um, but you know, again, I I would encourage you to look at that code that I gave you because I think it'll provide some insight for you. Um, it may be eye opening.

I didn't even know it existed. I wrote it down. Check it out. Yeah, you may, like I said, you may consult with your with your guy, with your legal um scholar to see if he or she believes you need to follow it, but but just take it as a scholarly piece of writing, if nothing else. All right. Well, thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. With the money you're doing, is there a way to know to help to what other towns have earned. Does that make ours 20,000?

Good compared to That's interesting. We could probably it public ones. So like the PE festival I believe is is that put on by Noblesville city of Nolesville? Do you know? See that the problem is So that's the problem is we have to say it. Okay. They're not. So, and I think even though they can say whatever they want. I think even the small little thing they do in Arcadia is private. Like a lot of them are I just thought maybe that would help done with the permission of the council, not by the council. But that's interesting. I don't know. Maybe surely there's another public one out there.

Frank. Yeah. where we I I know from word of mouth that other ones are struggling every year that I mean price for prices for anything is going up right so I I have heard there's a there are quite a few festivals that are struggling to keep going but I don't see that as a problem here so all right well thanks everybody you got something no I'm just I'm just gonna let's have Yep. I make a motion we journ our festival. All in favor? I