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Riverside Info » About Riverside

11. HRCollins
    Member

    Catherine - In a previous post you said that "Further, I do not approve of tax dollars being used by the "economic development" commission, as I see they are in the budget."

    Who should fund the EDC? Are you against the village having an EDC? Every town, village and city has some type of group that helps draw economic development to their respective areas. Chicago spends millions of dollars to keep or bring businesses within its boundaries. Many suburbs have full-time staff that work just on bringing events or new businesses to their towns.

    Let me tell you a story. I used manage a sports organization made up of teams from throughout the Midwest. It held 19 championships a year. I was contacted regularly by local governments asking to host some of the championships. Many of these towns were smaller than Riverside. All those towns realized that they needed to spend money to run their economic engine. I placed events in towns like Elkhart, IN, Muscatine, IA, Bowling Green, OH and Lemont, IL because those towns made an effort to welcome us and worked with the town's businesses to make each team's visit reasonably priced and memorable. I think the taxpayers would say that the money spent by their EDC's was well spent.

    I believe the Riverside EDC has a budget of something like $5k each year. I think 60 cents per Riverside resident is wisely spent.

    Posted Friday Jan 5, 2007 11:14 #

12. Catherine
    Member

    I don't like taxpayer monies used for any activity I don't approve of, and I don't approve of the promotion of making use of the synergy of TIF and the B2 zoning and variances here in Riverside. Indeed I was surprised that any of the organizations that are receiving taxpayer money were doing so, even the ones whose activities I DO approve of. Since we believe we are working for the good of Riverside, perhaps we should make use of taxpayer money for our expenses. Does the Olmsted Society use taxpayer money; I don't remember. Just my opinion.

    Posted Friday Jan 5, 2007 11:24 #

13. MikeSedivy
    Member

    To my knowledge EDC money is only used to for events such as the Art Fair and Leadership Breakfast.

    Posted Friday Jan 5, 2007 11:31 #

14. Catherine
    Member

    The Art Fair was better when it was in the park south of the tracks. This year one artist complained to me about the site. Why is it changed?

    I have never heard of the Leadership Breakfast. Who is the Leadership and why do they need taxpayers to buy them breakfast?

    Not to be petty, but I am told we do not have enough money to post important documents to the village website nor to take care of the trees in that park or in Swan Pond. I would like to think the budget is cut to the bone before I could get enthusiastic about getting and spending more money. That having been said, I do not doubt that you all work hard in good faith, according to your lights, for the well-being of the village.

    Posted Friday Jan 5, 2007 11:39 #

15. spatny
    Member

    I have a comment on the "Art Fair." More than two years ago I took the "Chalkfest" project to the EDC, back when Bill Kiernan, Olga and some others were on board. I showed them examples of a very successful event held in San Rafael, CA, and showed them a film on that event. They were unanimously enthusiastic about it, and voted at that meeting to adopt it. Since the San Rafael event brought in dozens of chalk artists to create major art works on the public streets the event draws over 50,000 visitors, and is a well received event operating for more than 20 years. I hoped a smaller version could be held, annually, at either the Hauser playground or even better, in the St. Mary's parking lot. I advocated that the event be worked out in cooperation with the Chicago Archdiocese, which could easily get a minimum of one participating artist from each parish FOR FREE. I envisioned a food court, some entertainments, etc.

    I went to the Chamber of Commerce meeting and showed the materials there and they too endorsed the project and were very enthusiastic. Then it went to the Village Manager, who after a few weeks still didn't even screen the video I supplied. Next thing I knew it was back to the same old stuff, except that they had hired an outside firm to run it. They did nothing, so the first year went with no event. A fee of several thousand dollars was paid to those promoters, but eventually, they had to admit they hadn't done what was required and so the whole thing had to be put off for another year. Finally last summer we ended up with something completely different held over at Centennial Industrial Site next to the dumpster which was, in my opinion, pathetic.

    Last night there was an accounting of the financial results of that event presented to the EDC by the Village Manager, but I didn't get to see it as it seemed to be "confidential." I have no idea how much was spent, how much they paid the promoters, or what came of it, but it was announced that the promoters had not responded to the Village Manager's request concerning whether they would handle it again. She mentioned that another "art fair promoter" wanted $30 grand as a flat fee. There was no mention whatsoever of the Chalkfest idea that originally launched this event.

    Posted Friday Jan 5, 2007 12:44 #

16. CandiGrace
    Member

    Catherine - if you really want to look at tax payer money being spent on things you may not approve of, check out Riverside Township. They collect our tax dollars and give them to the PTA's, RB's Patron Council, and the Art Center to name a few.

    Posted Friday Jan 5, 2007 12:59 #

17. MikeSedivy
    Member

    Mr. Spatny - I know that there was a fair amount of effort made for "Chalkfest" and we all thought it was a wonderful idea, however it had to be cancelled for lack of interest. My recollection was that only one artist was registered. I came in at the tail end of the planning, so I am not the best to speak to that. We would love everyone's input on next year's Art Fest. Right now, we are planning on combining more of an Arts&Crafts show (vs. fine art) with the Chamber of Commerce's Oktoberfest. A fine art fair is tentatively scheduled for Spring of '08.

    There is nothing confidential about the accounting and I do not recall any public comment or question on the issue last night. I don't have the numbers in front of me so I don't want to misquote the financials. I am sure the Village will provide you a copy if you ask.

    The Leadership Breakfast is sponsored by the EDC, Chamber of Commerce, and last year Mid-America Bank, LaSalle Bank, and Riverside Bank. I have not been to one so maybe someone else can speak to it. My understanding is that it is "get together" of the business owners in town and various leaders of all of the various community organizations.

    Posted Friday Jan 5, 2007 13:11 #

18. CandiGrace
    Member

    We tried very hard to have a chalkfest. In fact, that's why the project was postponed a year - the first year no one signed up to participate. We thought it was because there wasn't enough notice. This past year there was plenty of notice. We still only got 1 or 2 artists willing to participate in the Chalkfest part of things.

    Sometimes what seems to be a good idea, just doesn't work out.

    Posted Friday Jan 5, 2007 13:27 #

19. spatny
    Member

    Well Candice, what actually happened was that the Village hired some promoters and paid them, I think, a downstroke of $3,000. They did zilch, and then said they couldn't get any artists. But they kept the money towards their second year efforts, which were less than wonderful. I gave the EDC commission the name of the person that did the San Rafael event and they could have had consultation for several hours for about $200, plus sample promotional materials, etc. The initial thought was that someone from the Arts Center would run it, but that fizzled - well, it wasn't their idea, after all. I repeat, if they had contacted St. Mary's and the Archdiocese and built around that nucleus they probably could have had 200 artists participating in creating chalk works and the kiddies having their own street to do it on, and then on Monday the fire department could have just washed it all away. I offered to organize this for them, free of charge - but this Village government just likes to hire consultants. For the firm they hired this was small beer - so they just fluffed it.

    If the Archdiocese had been involved, there would have been participating artists from all over Chicagoland and a free and easy way to disseminate literature and draw people to Riverside - which I believe is also one of the things that the EDC is supposed to do. Maybe we should have a "Consultants Convention" here - they all know where Riverside is. Now they're going to hire another one to study "parking." What a colossal waste of money this all is.

    Posted Friday Jan 5, 2007 17:03 #

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