R2017-92 Temporarily Closing Some Downtown Sidewalks Decatur Celebration

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Item Coversheet Page 1 of 3 Development Services DATE: 7/17/2017 MEMO: TO: Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe and Decatur City Council Members FROM: Tim Gleason,City Manager Wendy Morthland,Corporation Counsel SUBJECT: Decatur Celebration Request for Sidewalk Closure SUMMARY RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends approval of the attached resolution allowing the Decatur Celebration to proceed with plans to fence in this year's event. BACKGROUND: This year the Decatur Celebration announced its desire to fence the event and charge admission as a way to provide the financial support necessary to fund the event going forward.This resolution,if approved,would facilitate the organization's ability to do so. A map showing the proposed locations of closures is attached and a list of responses to frequently asked questions related to this plan and submitted to the City include: In the event of an emergency,particularly one that requires moving large amounts of people in a short amount of time,is there enough places for people to exit,and will there be enough signage so people know where to exit? We have and continue to refine plans with the Decatur Police Department,EMS,and our Festival Security team to address safety in the event of an emergency.Each of our 7 admission gate will have(2)festival security representatives at all times who are trained on how to quickly move the fence out of the way if needed.If necessary,they would be alerted to do so via radio by our head of security,Dave Stout,who is also in direct radio contact with DPD.Additionally,there are logistics access gates on every street which would also be opened—some as wide as 40 feet.Combined with our admission gates,there is an exit that can be quickly cleared of fencing on every street the entire perimeter of the festival.We plan to open these gates nightly to allow for both public exit and entrance of clean up equipment.We will also place signage on every corner pointing to the nearest exit.In the event of an emergency we will also make announcements from our stages to direct people to safety and have both DPD and our festival security walk the grounds to help people find their way out. What is the response of the businesses that will be inside the fence? We hosted an informational session for all downtown businesses just after our announcement.Businesses were hand delivered an invitation to come,have a beer on us,and ask any questions they have about the fence.Prior to that meeting our fence layout had both Coney McKane's and Sloan's Calzones outside of the fence line,but to my surprise they asked us to reconsider so they could be inside the grounds and benefit from festival foot traffic.We were happy to oblige their request.The biggest question we got was in regards to how employees will get to work.We assured everyone that any downtown businesses that have employees who need access during the festival will be given a specially marked wristband that will grant them access at all admission gates.We have also offered the same to downtown residents. How will they handle their customers? The majority of the businesses benefit from the customers generated by increased foot traffic downtown during the festival.Some businesses like Robbies,Flora Gems,and Brass Horn have a tradition of closing for the weekend for staff vacation.Others like Busey Bank divert customers to other branches.However,I am training all my admissions staff to handle situations with grace.If someone comes to the gate and claims that they are only downtown to go to a specific business and not the festival,we have a plant to all for it.We understand that there will be learning curves and for that reason our mindset is handle any situation like that in the most peaceful way.I will say though,we have had a system in place for several years where if someone wants to park in a city lot that we are charging parking for,and expresses that they are only coming down to go to a businesses,we give them a voucher to have their parking reimbursed by that business,and the business in turn gets the voucher reimbursed by us.In the past 5 years I've probably only reimbursed 3 of those tickets. How does the celebration plan to expedite those customers through the check-in points? We have 7 checkpoints that will each be set up in a reverse funnel.A security usher will divide the group into people who have wristbands already and those who need to purchase a wristband.If someone already has a wristband they get right in-easy breezy. If they need to buy a wristband they enter the gate and get in the line que were there will be three windows selling wristbands. https:Hdecatur.novusagenda.com/AgendaWeb/CoverSheet.aspx?ItemID=1216 7/14/2017