Near the end of the Feb. 18 meeting of the Belleville City Council, Councilman Ken Voigt asked why the city holds the Strawberry Festival and what benefit is it to the city?
He said in the beginning, 44 years ago, there were three churches, strawberry growers, and service clubs in town who benefited from the festival, which had entertainment and a very nice juried craft show in the bank parking lot.
In the old days the Chamber would make $40,000 to $50,000 on the carnival rides and this funded the Chamber, he said. Last year $12,000 was cleared by the Chamber and the CBC made $3,500 off the crafters.
Voigt said a profit of six figures is down to this. “Why are we doing this? Disrupting the town for four days without strawberries,” he asked.
Mike Kole of the Chamber said he ran a small poll and found 70% of the Chamber members wouldn’t come to the festival. Most close their doors for that weekend. He said 40% of the money goes to two people. “We don’t need that $12,000. The people on Main Street, our members, don’t want it,” he said.
The Strawberry Festival agreements with the city were up for approval and the council turned them over to the city manager for review. She will talk with the festival committee and the Chamber and come back with a recommendation. Festival or no festival?
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My children and their friends still seem to enjoy the festival. And what else do we have our here. Why should we also have to drive to surrounding city to enjoy something outside of fishing and boating. Maybe try and bring other things in to attract other people. Put some work in, advertise more and maybe you would get more people that would bring in more money.
It would be nice if downtown had a coffee cafe’, bakery, a few more thrift stores, small shops like downtown Plymouth, can’t wait for the beautiful new library!! This is going to bring more people and traffic. Residents are beginning to try to avoid Belleville Road so let’s hope City of Belleville will encourage a Tim H. or McDonalds to come downtown.
You shouldn’t get rid of the festival. It’s a fun thing for this little town, we have nothing else to make Belleville stand out. The strawberry festival is belleville’s thing, that makes it special. Just read the Welcome to Belleville sign on East Huron River Drive by the boat dock, underneath Welcome to Belleville it says home of the national strawberry festival. I have taken my son there every year since he was a baby, and now I take him and my grandchildren every single year. Please don’t stop it.