(June 29, 2017) To curtail the weekly throng of people pitching new events to the Town of Berlin, the mayor and council passed a new downtown event policy on Monday.
Under the new policy, events for the following year must be submitted to the town between July 1 and Sept. 1. Only one event that requires town services may be scheduled per day.
The town administrator may approve non-alcohol-related events that “have a good track record with the town.” New events and those that include alcohol will require approval by the council.
Events cannot have generators louder than 58 decibels and vendors must remove their own trash. Dumping of grease or food waste is prohibited.
“Berlin has become very popular as a venue for events and literally, in my office, at least once a week, someone will come in and say, ‘I’ve got a great idea for an event, let’s do it next week,’” Economic and Community Development Director Ivy Wells said. “We needed to put together something so we could have some kind of frame of reference on when events would be discussed and when we could start planning for them.”
Wells said the increased lead-time would also allow promotional materials to be printed and distributed in time for the holiday season. She said town merchants like to put rack cards with event dates into shopping bags.
She added that town policy of allowing just six events per year that include public sale and consumption of alcohol would continue.
Wells said she discussed the policy with the Berlin Chamber of Commerce, which hosts most downtown events, and with town merchants. She said she would issue a press release and include news of the new policy on social media.
“I’ve run it by anyone who will listen,” she said.
Mayor Gee Williams asked her to alert other organizations that sponsor town events to let them know of the change.
Police Chief Arnold Downing apparently helped write the policy and was included in town meetings with merchants and the chamber.
“They looked at the number of events and the dates and they’re all bunched together and [there were] a whole lot of them. And the consensus was, we don’t need a whole lot more events,” he said. “I think this is one of the things the policy is going to do … make sure that the people have enough time to go ahead and put [out] a good product.
“If you have an event every week, you have a couple that are not really up to muster,” Downing added.
Under the new policy, events for the following year must be submitted to the town between July 1 and Sept. 1. Only one event that requires town services may be scheduled per day.
The town administrator may approve non-alcohol-related events that “have a good track record with the town.” New events and those that include alcohol will require approval by the council.
Events cannot have generators louder than 58 decibels and vendors must remove their own trash. Dumping of grease or food waste is prohibited.
“Berlin has become very popular as a venue for events and literally, in my office, at least once a week, someone will come in and say, ‘I’ve got a great idea for an event, let’s do it next week,’” Economic and Community Development Director Ivy Wells said. “We needed to put together something so we could have some kind of frame of reference on when events would be discussed and when we could start planning for them.”
Wells said the increased lead-time would also allow promotional materials to be printed and distributed in time for the holiday season. She said town merchants like to put rack cards with event dates into shopping bags.
She added that town policy of allowing just six events per year that include public sale and consumption of alcohol would continue.
Wells said she discussed the policy with the Berlin Chamber of Commerce, which hosts most downtown events, and with town merchants. She said she would issue a press release and include news of the new policy on social media.
“I’ve run it by anyone who will listen,” she said.
Mayor Gee Williams asked her to alert other organizations that sponsor town events to let them know of the change.
Police Chief Arnold Downing apparently helped write the policy and was included in town meetings with merchants and the chamber.
“They looked at the number of events and the dates and they’re all bunched together and [there were] a whole lot of them. And the consensus was, we don’t need a whole lot more events,” he said. “I think this is one of the things the policy is going to do … make sure that the people have enough time to go ahead and put [out] a good product.
“If you have an event every week, you have a couple that are not really up to muster,” Downing added.