At tonight's Committee of the Whole meeting, the Civic Celebrations Commission has their budget in front of the aldermen for discussion. The budget was worked on by Chairman Robert (Bob) Knackert. Knowing that all of the members of the commission have been at their volunteer posts for many, many years, I give them kudos for always putting on an excellent 4th of July Civic Celebration, which many Franklin residents dub with pride "Franklin Fest".
If the budget numbers are final and there are no additional contributions to be had, this year's Franklin Fest will have several modifications. The one that could have the most notice among families would be the elimination of childrens games from the festival. The entire budget is shown after the jump:
I don't know if this was considered or attempted by the commission, but I find it difficult to accept that someone or a family with some wealth in our community wasn't interested in making a contribution of $3000 to get the childrens games back in the line-up. Heck, even if several individuals or families got together it would be all the same. Just viewing this budget, I can see several areas where private donors could easily offset some of these costs and provide our community with a continuation of one of our two festivals every year.
