November 20th, 2019 by WCBC Radio
The Cumberland Mayor and City Council voted to table a planned vote on a proposed ordinance to set forth protocols and procedures for parades and special events. The idea is to establish a set of criteria each group would need to meet before an event could be signed off on by the city- as well as looking at a fee or charge to cover the cost incurred by the city for the use of personnel. City Solicitor Michael Cohen said the fees would vary…
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November 20, 2019 at 6:40 am, Zufall said:
What parades? Cumberland only has one parade and the city isn’t even part of the event. The city should be promoting more community events like parades and not setting up roadblocks for organizations that are willing to organize these great events.
November 20, 2019 at 7:51 pm, Jay said:
Yes, and that parade is really scary.
November 20, 2019 at 8:17 am, Ann said:
The city is part of the Halloween parade due to the fact that Cumberland City Police do traffic control for the event.
November 20, 2019 at 9:20 am, mac said:
I don’t want to characterize these proposed fees as extortion or some kind of shakedown but tacking an additional fee on top of a permit without having incurred any actual cost is putting the cart before the horse.
Any anticipated cost should be covered by placing monies in escrow as a sign of good faith and compliance. Then an itemized bill would be written to explain these added costs.
Any additional costs to the city would be paid from this escrow account.
November 20, 2019 at 7:50 pm, Jay said:
As I understand it, fees are one of the problems plaguing the Canal Place stage area. Seems to me that there should be some sort of an event every weekend from Memorial Day thru Labor Day. down there. It’s a very nice stage/space and is a large enough area to accommodate events of any size. I have approached Ms. Ritchie and others about hosting a Wine and Jazz event in late summer much in the mold of the WV Wine and Jazz Festival in Morgantown which has become a huge event attended by several thousand people over 2 days. I presented a very detailed template of what it would require logistically and financially to hold a similar event a Canal Place. Everyone I talked to referred me to someone else. I got tired of running in circles.
November 21, 2019 at 3:28 am, mac said:
> Canal Place shot themselves in the foot by raising rental fees by some huge amount a couple of years ago. Organizations that had held events there in prior years moved to the Ali Ghan Shrine for that reason. Now the City is attempting the same thing. It will probably have the same result.
November 20, 2019 at 11:18 am, Kevin said:
The proposals as outlined seem to give preferences based on community appeal – so when a political rally is held the fees may be higher. The ACLU will wind up ‘imposing’ a fee on the city via 1st Amendment lawsuits. In the end it will discourage parades because of the hurdle of cost and encourage legal bills for taxpayers defending it in court. The city finds new ways to abuse themselves.
November 20, 2019 at 6:07 pm, j.r. lepley said:
just stand back and take a good look at our city leaders,and you ll realize why our great city has become overtaxed and run down,but they are only concerned about getting their big paycheck s and coming up with new way s to pat theirselve s on the back and tell everybody what a great job they re are doing!!!open your eye s and look around town,it look s worse every year!!!