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HomeMy WebLinkAbout~Master - Street closure for Firefly Country Night on September 8 RESOLUTION NO. 17-419 RESOLUTION APPROVING STREET CLOSURE FOR "FIREFLY COUNTRY NIGHT" ON SEPTEMBER 8, 2017, FOR THE CITY OF AMES WHEREAS, in the past several years, the Main Street Cultural District (MSCD) has held an annual Firefly Country Night on Main Street, which features country musicians performing on a stage placed in the 200 block of Main Street; and, WHEREAS, this year, Jess Clyde of London Underground and Bill Malone of Cafe Diem have assumed responsibility for organizing the event; MSCD has endorsed the event, and will receive a portion of the proceeds from the organizers; and, WHEREAS, this addresses the second of the two Firefly Country Night events the organizers plan this summer, which will take place on Friday, September 8; and, WHEREAS, to facilitate this event, organizers have requested the closure of Main Street between Kellogg Avenue and Douglas Avenue from 6:00 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. on that date; and, WHEREAS, this event is proposed to be held on the Friday prior to the Iowa State-Iowa football game, and organizers anticipate approximately 1,500 people to attend this event; and, WHEREAS, City staff has met with the organizers to discuss concerns related to safety at this event, as a substantial proportion of those cited and arrested during football game weekends for nuisance and alcohol violations are individuals who live outside Ames; and, WHEREAS, on typical Cy-Hawk game weekends, the Police Department has historically begun to see an uptick in call activity in other parts of Ames by Friday, in addition, the Police officers will be working mandatory overtime shifts on game day, which makes it difficult to secure additional officers for a special event held the day prior; and, WHEREAS, staff has learned that the event was proposed for this date because a national act had an opening, and moving it to another date would not be possible; and, WHEREAS, given the increased calls for service anticipated that evening, staff has concerns about the ability of the police or other emergency services to quickly respond in the event they are needed at the concern site; and, WHEREAS, to mitigate these issues, organizers have proposed enhancing the event security and adjusting some of the environmental factors; and, WHEREAS, Firefly Country Night has been successfully held in previous years, and the organizers of this year's event have been directly involved with the planning and execution of the prior iterations of the event when it was produced by the Main Street Cultural District; however, this particular event proposal is challenging due to the substantially larger numbers of people expected to be in the Ames area over the weekend the event is proposed to be held; and, WHEREAS, assuming the City Council is comfortable with the potential risk associated with this event on this specific weekend and feels organizers are taking appropriate steps to conduct the event safely, it is the recommendation of staff to approve the closure of Main Street for the Firefly Country Night event on Friday, September 8. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Ames, Iowa, that the request to close Main Street between Kellogg Avenue and Douglas Avenue on Friday, September 8, 2017, for the Firefly Country Night is hereby approved. ADOPTED THIS 7t' day of March, 2017. C��A�a) liliee 4. . ,, Diane R. Voss, City Clerk Arm H. Campbell, Mayor Introduced by: Corrieri Seconded by: Orazem Voting aye: Corrieri, Gartin,Nelson, Orazem Voting nay: Beatty-Hansen, Betcher Absent: None Resolution declared adopted and signed by the Mayor this 7t" day of March, 2017.