Butler Day Vendors Will Have to Pay Permit Fees

The community's first Butler Day took a step closer to becoming a reality last week after the Butler Board of Education agreed that the event can be held on athletic facilities owned by the district.

The following night, however, the Butler Borough Council agreed not to waive permit fees for vendors participating in the May 26 event.

Butler Recreation Commission's Shelli Taggart, one of the primary organizers of Butler Day, had written the council an email asking if solicitor fees could be waived for the vendors. Mayor Robert Alviene polled council members during the March 19 meeting and council members seemed to agree that the fee should not be waived because waiving the fee would mean an additional expense incurred by the borough.

Even without the fee being waived, Taggart said she is confident vendors will be interested in participating.

"I don't feel this will have a negative impact on our prospective vendors because we kept our space fee very affordable," she said.

Vendors will pay $40 for a booth without electricity and $50 for one with electricity.

"If you look at the celebrations in our surrounding area, Butler Day's vendor spots ate extremely reasonably-priced for this type of event that is expected to draw quite a crowd," Taggart said.

But at the council meeting, cost became a concern not only in regards to vendors, but what expense the borough would need to make, and whether the members agree to it, in order for the event to happen. The council was approached by Taggart and Robert Soules, another Butler Recreation Commission member, in February as they explained the general concept and some details of Butler Day. The council unanimously agreed that the commission should continue to gather information and seek school board approval to move ahead.

At the March 19 meeting, some council members said there may have been a misunderstanding and that the council was not formally agreeing to assisting financially with the event. Borough Administrator James Lampmann estimated that between police and DPW overtime costs, the borough could need to chip in between $8,000 and $10,000 for the event.

"I voted for this asusming that we were just checking into it, not the fact that there was a $10,000 amount of money involved," Councilman Robert Meier said. "I would have not voted that way if I knew that."

Lampmann said the cost estimates for overtime were derived from the number of people who were estimated to attend the Butler High School football games against Pompton Lakes in which nearly 2,000 people were expected to attend. On the conservative end, Lampmann projeted the borough would need to spend at least $5,000 on overtime, but would want to be prepared for the crowd.

"You can't say 'I'm going to cover it with four officers and one guy' and then you have 2,000 people show up and you have a nightmare on your hands," he said.

Ultimately, the council members agreed to continue to allow the Butler Recreation Commission to gather information about the event so that a clearer picture can be made for how much the borough would have to contribute.