We Are Being Ripped Off

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "It's Not Your Place, Christopher":

Sometimes I think Christopher feels left out of the fray but he has designed his own website so that it is not conducive to the rapid to and fro of Evelyn's.
Back to an old subject, please.
Are we finished with dealing with the Jazz Gang? Do they have another kick at the can? In all the confusion and rhetoric, I lost sight of anything except the refusal to cede park rental fees. Is the event now for 4 days with a fully fenced park? Are there extra funds that can be granted by staff members without resorting to Council approval?
Basically, how badly are we getting ripped off?
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We are providing promotion for the jazz festival; on our web site, advertising boards around town. material can be placed in the town hall.Probably the library as well.


We are not waiving fees for the use of the  park.

W are permitting  our town park to be fenced off to prevent resident  access.It allows the promoters to collect an admission charge to enter a public park.

Rental  revenue will be derived from  retail sales kiosk operators  in our park;  a  beer garden ; and food vendors of the world. Artists will have sales and exhibition opportunities, not likely to be free.

Council was informed  last Tuesday, free use of  the venue was being requested again  for four days despite being refused.

 The  St Kitts web site advertises the festival for three days.

The Leisure Services Director stated  on Tuesday if the  application  was for four days, he would grant it.

I objected. I think it's outrageous to fence a  park off for one day, let alone four . It's unconscionable.

No-one else appeared to have a problem with the idea. Councillor Abel is a jazz fan.

In summer time, municipalities dress up  and introduce a little gaiety to the street scape. It lifts the spirits.

Lamp standards on Yonge Street and Wellington Street are equipped to fly banners. At a previous meeting, I suggested we might have banners celebrating the jazz festival.

We have done it before. The equipment is there. The cost is not great. It's not so much about  promoting the jazz festival as adding to the gaiety  of the street scape.

The jazz festival  informed us they would agree to that if we paid  for the privilege.

I am not in to that.

 Summer Concerts In The Park would just as easily be a  cheerful theme for a banner.

At the moment,  I know we are being ripped off for the use of the town park for three or perhaps four days,

The Farmer's Market vendors have to pay the town a season's permit to market  their wares on town property.

Vendors in our  park during the jazz festival do not pay  the town.
They pay the commercial concert promoters .

Insofar as we are providing a venue for a commercial operation  for the same user fee we would charge  a community organisation, that and the fact the park is being fenced off from its rightful users,  is as far as we are allowing ourselves to be  ripped off.

It's a damned sight too far, in my estimation.