Chanda Lynn (far right), organizer of the Rally to Recovery Jamestown event scheduled to take place on Sept. 23 at Allen Park in Jamestown, addresses the city council’s public safety committee during its Monday night meeting on Sept. 11.
JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown City Council’s Public Safety Committee has put the brakes on an upcoming event geared to raise awareness about chemical dependency in the community.
The Rally to Recover Jamestown is an event that is being planned by local addiction advocate Chanda Lynn of Jamestown. She scheduled the day-long event to take place on Sept. 23 at the Allen Park Bandshell in Jamestown.
But the city council’s public safety committee on Monday would not approve a special event application required to hold the event. Chair person Maria Jones cited several public safety issues related to the projected number of attendees, traffic, and the event possibly running past 9 p.m.
“There’s a public safety issue because of the no lighting. The parks close at 9. There’s a request for it going on until 10 or 11,” Jones said, adding, “There’s no bathroom facilities for 500 people. There was a checkbox on the request for no extra police, and somebody’s got to manage [the event]. Additional officers would be required for traffic control. There’s no way 500 people are going to park up there and you’re not going to need extra police.”
The committee members instead suggested the event be relocated to the Allen Park Ice Rink, to accommodate the volume of people and which would have adequate parking. However, the move would also require Lynn provide the city with an additional $570 in rental fees, along with a $500 deposit.
When Lynn said it would be a challenge to raise the additional money on short notice, one committee member suggested she may want to look at having the event in other communities if the cost was going to be a challenge.
“In Lakewood you have Hartley Park. There are other venues outside of the city that may not require incurring these costs but as we pointed out, the city does not have the means to pay for the overtime, the staffing, and everything else,” councilwoman Marie Carrubba said.
Following the meeting, Lynn told WRFA that she will be working to move the event to the Allen Park Ice Rink and is trying to secure additional funding for the relocation. She will update the committee during its Sept. 18 meeting.
We WILL be moving this event to a new location which will be disclosed soon, but have no fear- it IS still happening!!
It is sad that an event that is being held to help Jamestown should have to be held in another community because the amount of rent that Jamestown will be charging for the event is not affordable. It would seem that Jamestown has only to profit by this event even if they did not charge a dime. I guess to be fair they have to charge and treat everyone the same right? Still, you would think that since this is a rally to benefit Jamestown and its residence, city council could bend some.