In what Common Council President Steve Taylor called a "rally round the flag", the Common Council approved a budget for the Civic Celebrations Commission that included $2000 for the purchase of American flags for distribution at the 4th of July Parade. The council save could be deemed temporary, however, with CCP Taylor indicating that next year deeper cuts could be on the table for Franklin Fest.
The budget for the Civic Celebration (Franklin Fest) is now at $76,400. This budget still removes several components of the festival, including the childrens area and bleachers for residents to sit and watch the parade without the need of bringing their own chairs. As for next year, it remains to be seen. Due to costs of police and DPW being inserted into the budget for Franklin Fest, it is having a huge impact on festivities. This impact is leaving some aldermen, especially CCP Taylor, who is the aldermanic rep for the Civic Celebrations Commission, to openly state that Franklin Fest could have "less family fun and more booze".
With that quote, one could think that Franklin Fest is aiming to be a much smaller version of Summerfest, which runs at the same time. Let's not turn our shining moment of community pride into a festival that could have problems or issues not desired by a community of this size.
