March 2 Letter to Cedar Rapids City Council

DATE:                   March 2, 2010

TO:                       Cedar Rapids Mayor & City Council

FROM:                 Cedar Rapids Freedom Festival

SUBJECT:             Returning Freedom Festival to its Downtown venue on July 4^th

First and foremost, thank you.  Thank you for allotting agenda time on March 3 to discuss Freedom Festival’s application to return July 4^th festival activities to their traditional Downtown venue.

There are numerous nuances to the issue of whether to return the July 4^th festivities to their traditional venue.  By an overwhelming margin, the calls received at the Freedom Festival office favor returning Downtown.  It’s tradition.  It’s Americana.  It’s Cedar Rapids.

We won’t belabor the emotional component of this debate here. 

Freedom Festival is well aware that there will be expenses it will incur to produce the July 4^th activities Downtown in a safe and orderly manner.  Those expenses, as laid out by City staff, are significant and pose a challenge to Freedom Festival – but are not necessarily viewed as show-stoppers. 

As Council evaluates our application and Staff recommendations, Freedom Festival asks your consideration in the following areas:

·         tightest possible budgeting and personnel deployment scheduling;

·         waiving of the new $5/hour surcharge set to go into effect July 1, 2010  for special duty police hires;

·         City of Cedar Rapids takes responsibility for special police and fire asset deployments for areas or facilities, such as Penford, which are well outside of the fireworks safety zone;

·         what resources City can provide to reduce costs for Iowa’s 2^nd largest event; and of course,

·         approval of the Downtown venue for all Freedom Festival and festival-affiliated festivities on July 4^th.

As a non-profit organization Freedom Festival feels the impact of budget constraints just as surely as the City of Cedar Rapids.  We understand the limitations of budgets and are working to find sources of funding to address the unanticipated magnitude of the expenses estimated by City staff.  We understand our responsibilities – and will meet them.  We respectfully ask Mayor and Council to consider any ways in which the City of Cedar Rapids can assist.

Thank you for your time and for your continuing efforts on behalf of the citizens of Cedar Rapids.

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