Council will lessen security charges to make sure Freedom Festival fireworks return to the downtown

CEDAR RAPIDS - Whoever thought the Freedom Festival's Fourth of July fireworks show might not come back downtown this summer never apparently talked much to the City Council.

Council members made it clear last night that it was important to have the fireworks in the downtown this Fourth of July. And they directed the city staff to use some of the $25,000 set aside for special-event security to pay some of the cost the city intended to charge the Freedom Festival to have police officers and firefighters on duty at the fireworks event.

The Freedom Festival has said that the city's proposed charges for security had become the chief stumbling block for the festival to return its fireworks show to the downtown after a two-summer hiatus caused by the June 2008 flood and the ongoing flood recovery in the downtown.

City Manager Jim Prosser and Police Lt. Chuck Mincks last night put the city's cost of providing security for the fireworks event at between $24,000 and $38,000. Mincks said the city currently is training a new group of reserve police officers who can help staff the event so the low end of the cost range is probably closer to reality, he said.

After last night's council discussion, Janet Wilhelm, executive director of the festival, said it remained a little puzzling exactly how much the city would charge the festival for security and how much the city would use from its own budget for security.

“We're keeping our fingers crossed,” she said. The non-profit festival has $15,000 of its own money budgeted for event security for the entire run of the festival, most of which is for use on the Fourth of July. Wilhelm said she would like to limit the festival's security costs to what is in the festival's budget.

Council member Justin Shields called on City Manager Jim Prosser to “make it happen,” and said the city should simply find a way to cover the security expenses.

Prosser and Mincks noted that the city in some past years simply did what Shields was suggesting. The city “absorbed” the costs, they said.

At the same time, Mincks noted that the city once had 43 reserve police officers who worked the Fourth of July event for free. Today the city has fewer than 10 reserve officers, he said.

Mayor Ron Corbett said the Freedom Festival was not looking for a “free ride,” and he said the festival was willing to pay part of the cost for security.

Council member Tom Podzimek said he was not in favor of giving the Freedom Festival the entire $25,000 in the city's budget for special-event security, and he noted, too, that the city provides the Freedom Festival with $90,000 in hotel/motel tax revenue a year.

Council member Kris Gulick said he checked with the city of Des Moines, which he said provides a small level of security for free but expects events to build most of the cost into their budgets.

Council member Don Karr said the Freedom Festival provides a “huge” economic development jolt to the city, and it was important to recognize that.

Council member Chuck Swore said not supporting the festival's downtown fireworks event would send an awful message to those the city has asked to return to and invest in the downtown.