The South Jacksonville Celebration will not be held this year.
The village board of trustees met on February 20th and continued a month-long discussion surrounding the costs and the amount of village personnel and volunteers it required to provide the celebration for each of the last two years.
On the first year of the celebration’s return, it was marred by a group of physical altercations among juveniles at several different locations on the Prairieland Heritage Museum grounds. Village officials closed that celebration early after police had to diffuse the altercations.
Last year’s celebration was shortened and saw more abbreviated attendance.
Earlier in the month, village trustees in an attendance at a committee of the whole session on February 6th said that the village paid out over $80,000 from the village’s tourism fund to hold the multi-day event.
The village’s tourism fund account is funded by taxes collected by the village’s hotel-motel tax on visitor stays. Village trustees have been scrutinizing community requests for use of the funds in recent months for various organizations and events. The fund is designed to generally promote people to come to the Village of South Jacksonville and stay in the village’s hotels overnights.
The original intent of the celebration was meant to be an all-inclusive gathering for Jacksonville area students. Unfortunately, only the Garrison Alternative School has been able to take advantage of the carnival the last two years.
The lack of a major event or use for the funds will now leave the village with a surplus. Village President Dick Samples says he would like to see the trustees amend the village ordinance for use of the hotel-motel tax money so that it could be used for something beneficial for residents: “I would like to put [the funds] into some type of fund where it benefits all the people in South Jacksonville. I’m talking about whether it’s through water system. We are going to have to put or repair our current water tower, so we’ve got to do something there. We have to find the money somewhere. I would like to see [the tourism funds] spent in South Jacksonville for the betterment of all South Jacksonville.”
Trustees have previously indicated to open up the funds to any discretionary spending. A discretionary account proposal was shot down at the village’s committee of the whole session in January. Samples says the idea needs to be revisited in some way: “One of the ideas was setting up a discretionary [account] to use for donations. I don’t like that word, because it would not be a donation. The fund was set up to promote tourism in South Jacksonville. There is only so much tourism we are going to be able to promote. There’s only so much we can do out here, in my opinion. Going back to it, I think we need to pick out something, plan something that benefits us all not just a select few.”
Village trustee Paula Belobradjic-Stewart, who is the chair of the village’s tourism committee and has largely been responsible for coordinating the celebration the last two years, says she’s disappointed in the outcome and has grown frustrated with the lack of focus and direction on how to exactly spend the tourism funds: “The majority of our board was uncomfortable with the expenditure [for the celebration]. We are talking $60,000+ to put on the carnival that we did that was free to the public. That’s just what it’s about. I’m disappointed, just because my view of our tourism account, which is a restricted fund, that we are supposed to be spending that money for events and to bring people into our community. Some of the sentiments from the other trustees were that we should recoup some of that money. We are supposed to be fiscally responsible. I have to listen to the other trustees and I really value their opinions. So, now I think the consensus of the group tonight was to move forward and look at what we really want to do, which was look at our parks that we need to finish. We’ve got Dewey Park by South School. We have a property that we just purchased in another subdivision for a park. So, we are looking at building out two parks.”
Belobradjic-Stewart says she believes the consensus from the meeting on February 20th was that the park build-out was more permanent and would have a more lasting impact to the village, bringing those from the local area to the parks’ recreational opportunities. Belobradjic-Stewart also mentioned the village’s Inclusion Declaration signed by the trustees a few short years ago, which she says was part of the mission of the celebration. She says if the parks are all-inclusive than the shift in focus is a win-win for everyone.
Trustees had suggested earlier in the month that the celebration could continue but a fee schedule for vendors and/or an admission price on adults should be charged to help recoup the costs.
During the February 20th meeting, Belobradjic-Stewart recommended that the celebration be pulled from any further consideration on any upcoming agendas. Samples says further discussions with Village Attorney Rob Cross on amending the village tourism ordinance is expected in the near future.