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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFourth of July Steering Committee Minutes 2011-07-20 4th of July Steering Committee July 20, 2011 Minutes A regular meeting of the Fourth of July Steering Committee was held on Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at City Hall, located at 910 S. Friendswood Dry .,Friendswood TX 77546 at which time the following subject will be considered. The following members and staff were present at the meeting: Committee Member: Heather McDonald Committee Member: Dan Morgan Committee Member: Tommy McDonald Committee Member: Michelle Scarpa Committee Member: Stacy Scarpa Committee Member: Chris Scarpa Committee Member: Corey Kirkland Committee Member: Robin Hall Committee Member: Stefanie Karacostas Chamber Liaison: Lucy Woltz Director of Community Services: James Toney Staff: Kimberly Ramirez Staff: Drew Pennywell Staff: Gary Williams Guest: Tonya Hilton Guest: Mayor, David Smith Guest; City Manager, Roger Roecker 1. Call to order: The meeting was called to order at 7:03 p.m. 2. Communications from the public: Mayor David Smith attended the meeting and informed the committee of the great job that they did at the 4th of July event. He stated that most of the committee members have been on the committee for more than 10 years and he wanted to inform the committee personally that he appreciates that everything that they do as the mayor and as a citizen. One of the best things that we do as a committee for the community. I can count on 1 hand the number of complaints that I have heard, compared to the hundreds of accolades that I received on the 4th of July event. The mayor stated to Corey Kirkland that being in charge is not easy and you have done a great job and your leadership and continuity from year to year and I do want to thank you for that. Nicole Morgan stated we would like to say thank you for 8 years of support. Your one of the first mayors that made sure to say thank you on my 20 years on this committee. Dan Morgan stated that there’s something that is bothering me for the past 25 years on this committee. Why wouldn’t the police department budget their overtime to their own budget, the expense cuts into what were able to provide for that day. There’s no way we can dispute that number. We have this amount in our budget but we really weren’t under a huge budget constraint. It’s harder and harder for us to come up with that figure if salaries have to come out of our money. Roger Roecker stated that we couldn’t do it without yall and that’s stating the obvious and I hope that you love doing. The award that the mayor mentioned, #5 of the best cities to live in, yall are part of the reason that we got that. One of the terms that they stated that the city has a giving spirit, volunteer spirit giving of your time and hearts and that’s one of the huge advantages compared to the other 2500 cities in the countries and one of the big reasons is people like people like you. I just wanted to say thank you for that. If were known for anything we are known for the 4th of July. Mayor stated Thank you for letting me visit you. Tonya Hilton stated the reason she was at the meeting, what were dong is that the 4th of July event is just a big event and the Fire Marshalls office is putting incident action plans together and basically their outlines we took on how all of yall set everything up, improvements that you do and we submit it to the state that gives us credit and were trying to seek credit this year so that’s why I’m here. James Toney stated that he just wanted to let everyone know that Rene Rives resigned the committee due to her job and she regretted it and wanted to let us know that she enjoyed working everyone. Maybe we can get 1 or 2 more on the committee. 3. Discussion and possible action regarding June 15, 2011 minutes: Robin Hall made a motion to approve the minutes at presented, Michelle Scarpa second the motion and the motion passed unanimously. 4. Discussion and possible action regarding the 2011, 4th of July Celebration. A. Dignitary Breakfast: Nicole Morgan stated that 7am is a good meeting time for the committee and that could be something very brief, come in here and grab a taco and touch base with the rest of the committee members. That would be the earliest that you can make adjustments for rain. Lucy Woltz suggested having Joes BBQ cater the breakfast. They normally serve bacon, sausage, eggs, fruit and some kind of potatoes. B. Parade: Stacy Scarpa stated this has been one of the easiest parades that we did this year, the flow was excellent no issues with congestion and we gave directions when we called parade participants the day before. I thought about the idea and Drew Pennywell started towards the end of the notification process to send parade participants an email on their number. Post info with a link on the website and we can always email that out to whoever needs it, Stacy stated that she also wants to make calls to all parade participants. Robin Hall stated that she was excluded from getting a radio and she was here at 7 o’clock in the morning. Nicole Morgan stated my husband went out and got the radios it’s no big deal to ask them if they need something instead of waiting until the end of the night to bring it up and it will be fixed in the future. Stacy Scarpa stated we could have more radios if we asked them for them sooner. Corey Kirkland stated that the phones issue wasn’t done maliciously and we can order more radios next year. James Toney asked who is going to pick up the parade signs. Stacy Scarpa stated the parade committee will pick up the signs. She suggested to have double sided signs, it would cost less just to have them reprinted and add arrows later. Committee stated that Dunn Bros was awesome. Committee suggested possibly staging the parade announcer on the opposite side of 518, having 2 speakers facing Friends Church on a wireless mic. We need to have a sign where the judges are. Tommy stated move the car to the other side and leave the judges where they are. Corey suggested getting more participants from CCISD bands and Clear Springs. C. Day Program: Michelle stated that we need a new registration form on more power; she stated that the booth with the generator with one panel, Gary Williams fixed, but the booth had 5 plugs in the 1outlet. Michelle stated she would like to charge $20 per outlet and not allow vendors to bring generators. If they do need to bring a generator they will be charged a fee. Dan Morgan stated this is the problem, we have people pulling in like Dipping Dots that has a 40 amp in their trailer and it’s never going to run on those 20 amp circuits. Scott lent us 2 generators. Nicole Morgan stated that we need to confirm the generator with Scott and charge fee for renting a generator. Nicole stated that we need a BBQ lunch there, contact more people for the tweens, like water balloon wars and rock walls. Nicole Morgan stated that years ago we have up to 200 booths in the park with 3 stages. When we lost the BBQ dinner we lost a huge group. Nicole stated that she wish that the rotary did it, you have to find what the center is and I think that’s what’s missing is that there is not all these tiny kids anymore, the community is changing and we need to figure out how to get them back in there. Lucy Woltz stated the band, the churches, get those people back. The past few years it has rain and the vendors go in the hole for the 4th of July. Lucy stated that the Lions club didn’t want to do watermelon again because they lost money the past 2 years due to rain. Corey stated to find a group to do a BBQ by March or April and talk to Joes BBQ or Lighthouse. James Toney stated that Lighthouse is a perfect example so how about having Lighthouse sell BBQ. Nicole Morgan stated we need tents and we need to make a list and approach banks to get sponsors. Need generators and tents, petting zoo. Corey suggested coming up with a list of items we need for sponsorship. Committee liked having the 4 seater gator and recommend gators with roofs. Gary Williams stated that he’ll make sure that they have gas next year. D. Evening: Corey Kirkland stated that he loved the band; the whole committee loved the band. Corey stated that we find another cover band next year. Dan Morgan stated that FISD did a great job. Dan stated one of the things we got to do is that some point we need to have a cut off on when the buses stop on dropping off participants at the park. Dan stated maybe we should start going back to the high school as a pickup location. Dan suggested having nothing in the parking lot and have the cops staged down the street by the crosswalk. Tonya Hilton with the Fire Marshall’s office stated that you can’t park along the fire lane. Nicole stated it’s about public safety and yall are able to get in and out. Committee suggested clearing the parking lot and clearing the back stage area. There were a lot of people walking back and forth in that area. Dan stated that there were people sitting on the backside of the junior high next to the fireworks as they were going off. Committee stated that the motorcycle cops did an awesome job. Nicole stated that we should make everyone come in that the back gate. She stated to have the front gate as an information area and the back gate as the entrance for participants and vendors. Dan stated that the concession area needs to be moved around. We need to have a form for the vendors so we know who’s selling what. Committee suggested to have a cover band, 90’s and alternate it. There we no problem with the school lights. The next 2 years this is going to be a huge issue for us as far as people coming in from the back neighborhoods. You can crawl thru the fence, were going to have a ton more people walking in. There were no problems from the east side of west ranch. We would have to make them go past the school. Dan stated the last thing is logistics we can solve some of our problem and we need someone that is our logistic person and we need to have our PD liaison be with our logistics person all day. Dan stated the sound was much better but had some stage issues. It looks a lot better and gave us a lot more room on the deck. The fireworks music was good too. Tommy stated the fire dept. didn’t have any problems and appreciate James Toney leaving all the sprinklers on. Dan stated the light towers worked out ok. The location of the portable potties was in a good location. Chamber has a request is there any way that we can quickly draw right before the fireworks. Tommy suggested having the first ticket put away before the other 2 alternate tickets are chosen. Tonya suggested having your logistic person stick with PD in the command trailer. Dan suggested having Lighthouse do our food. Tommy stated that we need all committee members at the evening event. Dan stated that Gary Williams did a great job for the first year. Corey stated that everybody did a great job. I don’t bear much burden because yall did all the work. The next meeting is the 17th of August. New chairs: Chair: Tony Scarpa Vice Chair: Nicole Morgan Parade: Stacy Scarpa Day: Michelle Scarpa Night: Tommy McDonald Logistics: Dan Morgan Committee suggested having a contest and whoever comes up with the theme can be the grand marshal. Need theme by September Next meetings: Sept 21 Oct 19 Approved by: Kimberly Ramirez Date: 9/21/11