Wildwood Celebration Commission - Regular Meeting

Six o'clock.

I'd like to call the Wildwood Celebration Commission meeting on Wednesday, May 13th at 6 p.m. to order. Please call the roll. Chair Edens. Here.

Commissioner Silverman. Here. Commissioner Jones. Commissioner Collier.

Here.

Commissioner Lind.

Here.

Commissioner McEvoy. Here. Council Liaison Robleski. And myself.

Thank you. Special welcome to Commissioner Culler from Ward 8. I'd like to entertain a motion for approval of the minutes of March 4. Motion made by Councilmember Commissioner Silverman, seconded by Commissioner Lin. Do we have any additions to the minutes, any corrections? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed or abstain? Question carries. Do we have a member of the public here that would like to comment?

I didn't read the minutes, so I'd say no.

Do we have anybody online that would like to comment?

We have Ms. Hrabowski, and I'm promoting her. Other than her? No.

Okay.

Get her on here.

So I think we can use council rules for this, and she's within just a couple of minutes of roll call. She can say hello, then we can count her in.

It's fine to be promoted, so.

Oh, she can do, okay. I wonder if she hit the wrong button. Okay, well, we will carry on. Okay, so seeing no members in person or online as a member of the public here to comment, we'll close public comment and move on to part five, starting with a tour of the Village Green and weather is permitting.

Oh yeah, okay. Yes. Madam Chair, Department of Planning, of course, with all your to the team, which it's been meeting for many, many years. So we all do this station. The first item on the agenda, as Madam Chair mentioned, is to take a quick walk or tour of Village Green, if you'd like. I'm assuming that most of you have been there, but I don't know. And the intent was if you had to get an opportunity to see the venue and kind of where we're thinking of putting things, the event is functional and safe as possible. So it's up to you. If you feel like it's not necessary, certainly we don't want to force anyone outdoors and take a walk, but if you'd like to see it, we certainly can.

I actually haven't been. Perfect. Yeah. And it is on the agenda and it is posted.

Certainly. But as a majority, you could basically just amend the agenda and say, skip it. But it hasn't been.

Let's take a walkabout.

Is there anything? Shut down everything. So I'll be, it'll take me a second, but if you'd like to get started, I'll be happy.

And out of curiosity, will it say on the screen that we paused and we'll adjourn? Okay, Vicki, so if you want to stay tuned for us to come back in person and finish out the meeting with us, that would be great.

Okay, I will.

Okay, thanks for attending.

Good to see you. Yeah, nice to see you guys.

Dawn?

Dawn? Gracie has something in her mouth. Oh, no. Gracie.

No, no. Gracie. Dawn. Dawn. Oh, hey, we got that question.

I didn't have mine. See her, there she is. Mr. Blosky? She's waiting, but I mean, she can't.

There it is. Yeah, that's it. All right. Yay. Okay, well, we just did item number five, part A, the tour of the Village Green. We had a very nice time. That was awesome. Does anybody have anything that they want to share for the record or for Council Liaison Rogleski? We just, we liked the future use of the space. We're excited about the playground. We're looking forward to the historical preservation booths being next to the cabin. And we saw the pavers that have been engraved.

Yeah, we'll look through patients.

okay moving on to part b revenue sources and sponsorships for funding of the 2026 event including responses to the request for proposals or rfp from your vendor booths madam chair with your permission so adam care and members of the commission a couple major points tonight that

Daisy, Chris, and I would like to develop for you relative to the revenue of sponsorships. And more importantly, the responses we receive to proposals relative to the primary that provides refreshments. First, as Chris notes, we have about $10,000 in sponsorships. And I was under the assumption that with primarily some in-kind in-kind items that have been provided, such as West News Magazine. But Chris corrected me today. Would you like to take it from there?

Yes. We have 10,000 in sponsorships, and we just got our assertion order from West News Magazine as we met with them today. couple weeks ago. So that in-kind sponsorship is $4,255 in-kind. So that brings us up to $14,255 and our goal I believe is $25,000. So we are plugging along. Thanks. So as you know we've

had for many years been slowly increasing our goals for sponsorship. This year, you were kind enough as a commission to recognize we were also trying to raise money and sponsorships for the all-inclusive playground. And so we've been spending much of the latter part of 2025 and now almost all of 2026 doing that. We'll be concluding that particular effort for a couple of reasons. Obviously the big event occurred the same day as the ribbon cutting for Village Green. So we'll not have another like silent auction or anything along those lines. Also, we'll have a day, we'll have one more fundraising event, which is a bingo event at Good News Brewing Company. And that'll be on June 24th, Wednesday. And then thereafter, we hope to be in construction. And what we have is what we have. So roughly $10,000 short of our sponsorship goals. So congratulations again to all of you. We still have, from my calculation, about four months to raise the other $10,000. And I think that's certainly doable. So sponsorships in kind. and now to the request for proposals. We did receive two proposals. The first response we received from was a partnership between the Lowry Club and the Lions Club. And their proposal responded to all of the set forth in the for proposals as developed and adopted by the commission. The second came from John Gerstle, On the athletic association, which has been many the beer 10 so to speak, for many, many years into met all of the requirements that one. John Gerstle, In the request for proposals, we set a minimum 30% of the share and their show to get 12% which has been the amount that we had asked of them for the last several years yeah the rfp was pretty clear. And that clarity came from you all as commission members, because as we've had to kind of weather the reduction in the amount of funding provided by city council for the event this year, $15,000 less, and kind of compete against ourselves in sponsorships, we thought that we need to start looking at other sources of revenue, and one was the beer tent sales. So tonight, We have very competitive responses, but the major difference between the two is the amount of revenue that each had identified as willing to share with the city for the opportunity to be the primary bear sales on the event grounds. Is there any questions? Chris has worked more closely with this than I have summarized the major points. We have a representative from Bond Athletic Association into the meeting. So if there are questions regarding their proposal, certainly with the chair's permission, the individual can participate. So thank you.

Commissioner Lentz? Well, I was just wondering, has PON paid up from previous years?

Yes. Ms. Herbst, who's been a volunteer out there since the day I think they opened the gates, came by about a month or so ago and wrote a check for

600 and some change.

So yes, correct. But it obviously had a good, good, good day at the celebrate Bob would have been because I think the year before it was only around $200 or something. So tripled. Yeah, this is obviously a nice boost for all of us as well.

I saw him. Mr. Silverman, did you say you had a question?

So any thoughts on your all's part about review the responses and we can tackle this at the next meeting. I do feel asked the chair of the department permission to ask the representative athletic association. Did you know that you underestimated the revenue? that we will require.

Yes, you mean? Because I think in the RFP with 30% of sales and not profit. So we knew in our proposal that we felt comfortable going back to how we've done in the past. I don't know if everyone's familiar with Pond Athletic Association, we're a youth baseball organization in town. And I've been with the organization probably for six years, and Judy Herbst since the 60s probably. Yeah, really. It's been that long. She's trying to make it here now. But I think we've been doing the beer tent for a long time. Yeah, probably 20 years. I don't know how long it's been going on.

Actually, ever since we've had a beer tent, Pond Athletic Association, we do that. We did that for a couple reasons. First, they offer a set of services in the recreational area. We don't. Ball fields and activities for kids from the little guys all the way up to high school. And then secondly, initially there was not much interest. And so POD stepped in and basically said, we'll fill that void for you.

So we're all volunteers. sales, not profit. It's almost we're not making anything. It's almost not worth our time or liability at that point. So in the past, like I say, I think it was 12% of profit, not revenue. So it's just hard for us to make it work. But we feel like we do give back to the community. We don't have to make a bunch of money. We use that money to give back. So to say.

Thank you. Yeah. Your name, sir. I forgot. Yes, sir. So Mr. Again, it's a decision that the commission can make. Now, obviously, the revenue is a key component to all of us as staff to the commission and certainly to our city council and the department's perspective. We've probably not had a better friend at Pond Athletic Association over the years. I will say they were slow to provide the check at the end of the event. Sometimes we had to wait almost six months, if not close to a year. But I don't know if that's a problem or not. Certainly this year we received the check relatively soon, some six months or so, seven months after the event, so.

Is there a point to that? Sure. Okay. Say we are all volunteers are running the park. No one's paid. We pay some of the grounds crew to set the fields and that kind of thing. But one of the volunteers positions is treasurer. And we got a new treasurer this year. So we've been really pressed them to pay our bills a little quicker. So that's, we really pressed them to get that check into the city and we'll do that in the future as well. Thank you again, Mr. Allen.

Thank you. So again, we have two proposals. Other than the difference in the percentages, they're really identical. You all know the Lions Club, Ed Marshall, Mike Rain, a number of them participated over the years cooking hot dogs for the city at the concerts. The Rotary Club was a major participant in the Barbecue Bash, and there's beer tents there. I would say there is a difference between the two and I don't know if it's a difference, I'm much of a beer drinker, but given that Honda Athletic Association has an existing liquor license and purchases beer from Anheuser-Busch, they'll get a trailer with the draft barrels. The Lions Club Rotary Partnership, I believe will be the bottles or cans. So there's a bit of a difference. I don't know if that makes a difference in the taste. I'll defer to the police.

One more point to that. It's harder and harder to get the draft barrels at the celebration. Last year they could do it, but Judy pulled some strings and said we could get that trailer for one more year. They were pushing us to go to Cairns. That's all I have.

Oh, thanks. Well, Madam Chair, like I say, obviously I'm sure that the two entities would like an answer, but if you'd like to think about it, certainly we could wait until the June meeting. We're only a few weeks away. You have the information. And if you have questions, please contact Chris. She's kind of been the gatekeeper on this and did a wonderful job kind of organizing everything that we are doing for you all. Any other questions about revenues, sponsorships, or for sales?

I would like to make a couple of comments. I think most people generally prefer a draft. As to a can, it's good to know that that's not always going to be something in the future. maybe don't make a decision entirely on that. But yes, I think it's absolutely preferable. And I am glad to hear that you are working on accounting issues in a timely manner because you're not the only nonprofit that participates. So you would be the only ones that we would be making an exception for, whereas other people have to pay their tent registration and other things on time. I mean, I have a little bit of a conflicted feeling because we did put out an RFP and to choose a vendor that doesn't meet the minimum requirements is interesting, but to sever a relationship is also a considerable weight as well. So if we want to take more time, I would recommend a motion to postpone until the following meeting. If you feel prepared to make a motion, please do so tonight and we'll see where the support is.

I make a motion that we postpone until the next meeting.

Okay, made by Commissioner Lin.

Do I have a second? Second.

Made by Commissioner Silverman. All those in favor, voice vote, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstain. Thank you for providing more information. Good to be here.

Thanks, Judy. I hope we do appreciate it. So obviously we've deferred the decision and we'll certainly, we'll refine anything that came out of tonight's discussion so that, it together in June. You'll have hopefully every bit of information. And then obviously, Mr. Ott's participation helps a little bit, I think, to kind of put perspective or context. So thank you. You want to mention too that at the ribbon cutting April the celebrate logo contest was honored as well. And she participated and was up on the top of the staircase with everyone else when the ribbon was cut. She is a graphic designer. So I think your selection really kind of narrowed in on professional approach and we are working. Yes, we are working on the shirts. So we'll have mock-ups for you at the June meeting so you can kind of see. As you know, last year was the first year you've kind of pushed us to order early so we could start circulating those things and offering them before the event. So people could put them in advance of the event and do some advertising for us. If there's no objection, we kind of like to do that again as soon as you basically give us the thumbs up on the mock-ups, the ones you prefer. get on out there and get that started. And maybe by July, we'll have a sweatshirt for you to wear.

Hey, I know a lot of people, but when we were wearing those t-shirts, you know, yeah, I think they turned out very nice last year.

I'm going to you and to Stacy and Chris, you all have much better taste than I. So, um, but yeah, we'll have that available for you. And, uh, Hopefully, as we prepare some of the advertising information, the marketing information, you'll start seeing that new logo around. And from a personal standpoint, I'm so glad we're retiring the colors of the other. It's just like, you know, I think we've got some earth tones, colors that match the Wildwood kind of theme. So I think it's going to be much more fun. So thank you.

I have a question. The silent auction, did that money go to this, for this event, or did that?

The playground.

A playground, okay.

And just as we had a 50-50 raffle, we had a couple of young ladies walking around selling raffle tickets. We raised about $265,000 from that. the 50-50 raffle, almost $9,000 from the silent auction. And combining those two plus the sponsorships we received from equipment, it ended up that day we raised about $25,000 and doubled basically what we had prior to that. So it was a very successful day. Thanks to all of you who attended. We do appreciate it. Ms. Silverman, who I didn't know her son was Jake. Jake won his Kurt Warner autograph. I was so happy for him.

Thank you.

That's pretty cool.

Yeah.

Um, and can we mention a council member liaison to the commission, Ms. Robleski for her wonderful, um, snacks that were in an art form, the roses with the olives and all the, all the little work you did. I'm sure you did a lot more than I realized, but I was fascinated.

It was all fun.

It was great. So thank you very much. Uh, parade components for 2026. Thank you, madam chair.

Madam Chair and members of the commission, as you know, each month we provide an update on the signature event that kicks off, Celebrate Wildwood, and that's the parade. A lot of things are, oh, I shouldn't say a lot, three things are completed, but other than a couple, every other one is underway. And so the main topic tonight is selection of the Grand Marshals, or at least the discussion and the selection of grand marshals, and then analyzing that decision and reaching out to those individuals or individual asking them to participate as grand marshal. As you know, last year it was our former mayors. Several participated, not all. A couple had conflicts for out of town and couldn't participate, along with Greg Quinn. who was the farmer council, county council member that kind of bucked everybody down at the government center and said, corporation is your only way to save this area. Otherwise the six other county council people will continue to do what they do and look at Wildwood just as another revenue source and not hear how it looks 20 years from now or 30 years from now. So he was in trickle and making a bold step, writing a letter, That letter went out to almost everybody in the unincorporated area that was going to vote. And many feel it was the tipping point that made it work. So this year, the year before we did, Karen Fox passed as one of our history people, the gentleman that I can't think of his name.

Vern Luther.

Vern Luther, who is a World War II veteran, fighter pilot, was over 100 when he attended. A couple of others. Probably ought to get you a list of who's been the Grand Marshals. It might help you kind of know where we have been heading. So we'll do that, and we'll get it emailed out to you so you can have it in advance of the next meeting. But any thoughts?

I have a thought. What about Mr. Kennedy, who's

Yeah, this was certainly an option. Just to give you some background on Mr. Kennedy. He was one of the, he was appointed to the initial city council by the St. Louis County Council. The County Council, County Executive Buzz Westphal picked eight anti-incorporators and eight work graders to form the first city council. So it was kind of interesting. And so the mayor was a gentleman named David Glouser, who was killed in a bicycle accident on Mill Ridge Road a couple of years ago. And he was kind of nonpartisan. He tried, he was the marshal, so to speak, but tried to keep them all in line. But yes, if you have thoughts, if you know of somebody, Mr. Kenney was on the first appointed council, then stepped away for several years while his business was thriving, and then came back and was on our historic preservation commission. He was a flashpoint during the Mayor Bowen years, I will say that, often challenging him in some of the decisions he was making. But certainly, as I said, he came to us in 2008 and said, I have an idea.

probably would be interested. I mean, he did come to the cutting.

Well, why don't we do this? I feel bad. I didn't think of giving you a list of grand marshals from past years. More so maybe not just to invite them, but to know where we've kind of gone, who has been identified. I know in the early years, we used to have the chief of police that And that would be actually the Lieutenant Colonel down at St. Louis County. We had a couple of them over the years. And then we had, I think, a fire chief at one time, a couple of the fire chiefs. So we'll get it all pulled together for you. But I guess I would ask, we have one suggestion. We'll put that on the list. And then we'll get you the list of past Grand Marshals. And then when we get back together in June, We'll ask for some direction.

We invited our hometown heroes. I think that was two years ago. We did all the hometown heroes. It was a new program. So anyone who had a banner was invited to be in the parade. And a lot of them did it. That's great.

We had their banners on top of the golf carts. It really worked out well. It looked good.

Can I add a suggestion?

Certainly.

Sorry. I DON'T KNOW ANYBODY MORE DEVOTED TO THE CITY OF WILDWOOD THAN MR. VUNICH WHO HAS BEEN HERE FROM THE BEGINNING. JUST A THOUGHT.

GOOD SUGGESTION. WHAT IF WE OVERRULE IT?

FORGET YOU PAY ME TO BE HERE.

We can do an honorary session. Yes. That's a great idea. Can't opt out of. I could come down with something. We'll find you. Challenge accepted.

But all in all, the parade is going very well. As you know, we've reached out to past participants. In terms of commitments, Chris will give an update, I think, there when we get to that one, the agenda. We think of anybody or know of anybody that wants to participate. One of the things we're doing in response to the county police's concerns about safety, we are doing a better job having volunteers along the route. And we also kind of, there's a gentleman who used to be down in Federal West, one of the captains, Pat McAvoy. What's his name? That's your name.

Yeah, Victor.

We had worked with the Baldwin Days Parade for years and years and years. And theirs was out on Manchester Road, Route 100. So I'm trying to connect with him and get an idea how best we can solve that Taylor Road issue. And certainly, if the police have some suggestions, we just want to make it safe and fun. I completed the task relative to the parade, I think.

Well, thank you. Any other, no other questions? Are we ready to make two more?

Yes. On the sponsorships, I know we're going backwards here, but how do we follow up with the information that's been sent out to them?

So our initial reach out was via an email and we get a business list from Colleen, the clerk. So she gives us a whole Wildwood business list. We also reach out to our contractors because those are, they do a lot for us, pay them a lot of money. So we've reached out to them as well. We will do a follow-up. So we will reach out again to go back to, especially our contractors, certainly not the entire business list again, because a lot of those are home-based businesses and things like that. And also our past sponsors, we will reach out. Again, if they have it, we generally, it is generally the same group of people who sponsor every year. So I don't know. And, and I think at this point too, the businesses that want to participate, that is the way for them to participate and have a booth. So that's where you're going to get your gutter guards in, in those window type people. And as you know, this year, the decision was made to limit to 20 sponsor booths. Because if not, we'd have all sponsor booths. So we definitely will reach out again. So we'll go in for a second attack. We also will pop in to businesses. We're not ashamed. We will hit them up. Hello. So we do that as well. And I don't know who we've talked. We've talked about somebody else. Oh, Pasiglias. We haven't met them yet. So, but you guys are welcome as well. Like if you have any connections, we.

There was a link also shared in that email that they can just click, go right to the website and sign up as a sponsor. We make it easy. So if you need the link, we can send that to you. but it's right on our website at the Celebrate Wildwood page. They can click on that and become a sponsor, get their booth.

Send us their logo. Today, Doug Zick, be at your door soon.

I didn't know if you needed any assistance with that second attack or... We'll take any help. Sure.

Yeah. Like knocking on doors, emails.

Do you need some paper? I do. Okay.

Some literature.

Okay.

I'll get that for you.

The chart that lists out what everybody, what you get for each level. And it has been successful. Obviously, the businesses that do want a booth, they had to bump up to that celebrate level. So that's nice. It helped us out. Yeah. So that was a good decision on your part. So, yep.

Mr. Silverman, thank you. And we'll send the list to all of you. You may patronize somebody and it's like you see them or you go get your hair cut. And you can talk to them about it if you know they're on the list. And it wouldn't be foreign to them. Like, what are you talking about? Well, you've gotten a letter from the city already. One of the more effective tools last year is when the city administrator, Tom Lee, sent a letter to the contractors saying, You can talk to them all that we want, but when the city administrator signs the checks and contracts, it was like, yeah, all of a sudden they started. It's like, oh, that's good. Again, as I've told you many times, we spend millions of dollars with these contractors. To give back to the city a little of that, it's not much to ask.

Sorry, everyone, my I recommended Joe and then my phone overheated and now I'm in front of a fan. So I think I'm back.

That's your name. Okay.

Well, it sounds like we are ready to move on then for updates of activities, commitments, and actions.

See, we have a new format for our, our, our date. Compliments of director moonage and it's a much more understandable and easy to read. So, um, Generally in the same, in the same spot, we do have a few updates. We have one volunteer. So Lafayette ROTC, lovely. So they are going all out. They will have a booth. They are going to volunteer again and they are going to be in the parade. So that is, they're one of our top volunteers. They help break down at the end of the night when everybody's So ready to go home. And they're just, I know Natalie can tell you they're a godsend because they have helped her before. So we're really excited about having them on to help us all. sponsorships. We just talked about that too. Some of them, Portable Water Closet, Singers, Go Green, some of our big contractors, Big Chief. They're coming back this year, so that's lovely. And then, of course, our window people and all those that we appreciate. We have received a proposal for bistro lighting, and we're looking over that. That's combined with our holiday lighting package, so we're

We have to take a look at that.

Police services under the competent direction of these two officers here and Sergeant.

Line dancing, that proposal right now is sitting with City Administrator Lee. So he's reviewing that to check that out for the line dancing. So we will wait till we hear from him on that. Is that who we had last year? Yes. Sammy Navies, that's the same line dancer. instructor.

They participated in the parade as well, too, right? Yes. So they would do both again, we think?

This year, we kind of kept it just with the instruction.

I asked her about the parade, but there's no commitment yet with, you know, there's no commitment yet. We have time.

And you'll see the parade participants we already have ready to go. Wyla Farms Community Garden, St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Pond Athletic, ROTC, and St. Albans Row So I guess they don't have their event the same weekend as us this year, which is lovely. And Grand Marshal, we'll talk about that. Metro West is scheduled for the parade and for the other things they normally do. They normally do the opening ceremonies with us, and they are there for first aid and also for everybody's enjoyment. And we will reach out to Eureka and Monarch that you have asked us to do too. All right, layout, we're still going. Food vendors, kind of see who we've got so far. We do have a couple duplicates in there with some duplicate food items, which are very duplicate. So we're kind of taking a look at those as well. Drink vendors, we have a variety there. Crispy sips, I guess that's very popular right now, the dirty sodas. We have our sound stage all good to go. Our band's good to go. Pony rides. I have touch base with Pam Schwartz. So she has that on her calendar. And other kids' activities are almost ready to go. Sponsorships, we've just discussed. So we will keep on that. Booth commitments, 24 artists, no authors yet. So if anybody has an author in mind.

Non-profitists, okay. Okay.

And nonprofits, we're at five, no government agencies, but I think they usually kind of eke in at the end. So, um, and kind of see what's going on with our schedule. Cause we know they're busy too. As mentioned, we did meet with West news magazines. We have that going. We usually start that. We do the, um, say the date, which is the same plan. I think that worked really well for us last year with that little quarter page, half page, whatever we did last year. Um, I think sincerity has that done and over to her. So it will be the same as last year. I think that worked really well. And event poster.

Oh, we don't have that tonight.

No, but it is completed.

That is completed. Okay, I'll be right back.

And with our different logo and different colors, it's a different look this year. Okay.

What about the scavenger hunt?

Okay, so Stacy talked to you about that? We have kind of an idea, so it's not the same kind of type app because we want to do something different. HPC has done a scavenger hunt for all her Route 66 and stuff, which I guess was successful. We had one in January as well. that we did, but people really get into this one for Celebrate Wildwood. So we're looking into kind of like a mystery type thing. So I guess Stacy hasn't brought it to Joe yet. We're really excited about it. So excited to tell you guys about it.

She's making it sound like I actually make a decision about what to say. So yeah, we're doing a mystery. Like a...

It's not a whodunit, but it is. She has a lot of clues. I'm like, hey, we got, we got to get other stuff. We got green wrap going on, but she's got a lot of the clues done. So we're talking about the scavenger hunt, which is more like a.

So many reasons to celebrate. Wow. That's good. I'll pass it over.

Small version. So, yes, that it. Bring it. Bring it. The scavenger hunt idea next month.

Oh, yeah. It's so draft.

Yes. So, but I said, we're really excited about it.

Sounds cute.

The other year was either last year or the year before, because I kept going to all those art festivals. Yes. Is there any way to get little cards again? Yes. Okay. Because, you know, I just went to Laumeyer and I saw some of the ones that came before, like Moon in June Studio and some other ones.

So what did you say, Lauren? Thank you.

Yep. I try to go to, and I would encourage any commissioner to do this, please go to other municipal events that are similar and other ones that may have something that you would want to bring to the table. So I try to go to art fairs, whether that's in Webster Groves or in St. Louis City or Clayton or whatever. Now, some of those are juried and ours are not, and it's a different feel, but there are some vendors that will come both, especially if they're local. do both styles of events. Some will not. So just kind of look for who you want to recruit. Do what they say. But some of them book up now. So they're, you know, better than later.

So we'll get you information. Friday night, we'll have information on the bingo line for the all-inclusive playground. We'll also have a poster or a handout ready as well. So we'll start emphasizing coming Friday night about the event. Although I made a mistake when I was formatting this. As you know, first Saturday of May had traditionally been our plein air event. We've changed that. Now it's incorporated into this event. Could you go through it? Yeah.

So we just sent out a call to all the artists and photographers who have participated in plein air in the past. But in the past, plein air was one day only. This time we are opening it up to giving the guidelines and the theme to the plein air participants on Friday, July 17th. They'll have until August 7th. So it's basically three weekends, three weeks to do their artwork based on the theme and the locations we provide them. to turn in their artwork before August 7th and we will display them here in the lobby but they'll be for sale and we will have the sale going through Celebrate Wildwood and we hope someone will be down someone will be down here to sort of man that and then we'll do a little awards for that also we'll have voting at some point but we'll be able to to do a little award ceremony for the winners of that. And they have categories of photography, best in show, runner up, for photography and traditional media, and then also for the student artists in photography and traditional.

Part of the idea, too, is to have something that the city or at another tent about the plein air and have a People's Choice Award.

Mm-hmm.

So people will be, well, what are you talking about? We're going on to the lobby at City Hall, which will be our cooling station, too. If we need to take a look at the artwork, vote on it. And we'll do a people's choice, which is new to them. So we'll get that on the list, this list, for your next meeting.

That would be great. Oh, yep. So if you, if you've gone to our event and thought, gee, I wish we would have had this or somebody would have sold this, you are now the recruiter to help bring that in. So that's, and we're so excited that Natalie's, you know, as our farmers market manager, tremendous amount for the city. Okay.

Madam Chair, we'll attest. We've had people do some amazing photography off of their smartphone. So it's really open to a lot of people. It's not just an artist per se or someone that is an amateur slash professional photographer. So we're hoping people, a lot of people participate. And the one downside to a single day event between the hours of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. is that we never got sunrises and we never got sunsets.

Okay.

And I think Wildwood has some of the best.

Oh, we have amazing sunsets. I have the best off my back, up on my porch, up on my deck. It's unbelievable. My neighbors were like, can I come over and look at your sun? I'm like, yeah, come on over.

It is amazing. It is. It's gorgeous. It's because of the Labadee power plant. Yeah. Sorry.

No, no, no, no. Okay. Any other considerations, miscellaneous questions?

Please have any updates you want to share or anything. All right. Nothing under miscellaneous. Speak now forever. Hold your peace or otherwise. Our next meeting will be Wednesday, June 3rd at 6 p.m. Would love a motion to close. Motion made by Commissioner Silverman, seconded by Commissioner McEvoy. The motion is not debatable. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstain? Meeting is adjourned. Thank you.