The annual pre-Easter Flop E. Bunny event at Victory Park on April 7 is sponsored by the Central Business Community, who wants it to be completely free for children this year.
That includes the pictures with the Bunny, which sometimes in the past had a charge.
At Monday’s meeting of the Belleville City Council the event generated discussion because the Belleville Area Council for the Arts was asking the council to approve its use of Victory Station during the same time for a fund raiser.
BACA president Kay Atkins said her group wants to sell hot chocolate, cookies, and snacks to earn money for the purchase of property on Main Street. She stressed they would use Victory Station only if the weather was good enough for the Bunny event to be outside. In case of inclement weather, BACA would relinquish Victory Station to the Bunny, she said.
The council had already approved the CBC’s Flop E. Bunny event from noon to 2 p.m. on April 7, when the BACA request came up for consideration.
Bill Wolters of the CBC said his board discussed this and decided they wanted the Flop E. Bunny event to be a completely free day, adding it has not been a revenue day for the CBC for years.
Tom Fielder of the CBC agreed that the group was asking for the use of Victory Park and plans not to have any cost of any kind, and a fund-raiser would alter the nature of the event.
Councilwoman Kim Tindall said she was under the impression that the fund raiser was blessed by the CBC, but now learned it wasn’t.
DPS Director Keith Boc said there have been years when the weather started out being nice, but then the event had to move inside.
“There could be a problem,” Boc said, adding BACA could already be set up in Victory Station when bad weather set in and Flop E. Bunny had to move inside.
“We’re giving CBC Victory Park and the CBC doesn’t want to say they don’t want BACA there so they pass the buck to us,” said Councilwoman Kim Tindall.
“I agree,” said Mayor Pro Tem Jack Loria. “We gave it to them for their function and they have control over the facility.”
Loria made a motion to deny the BACA request, but it died for lack of support.
Thus, Mayor Kerreen Conley pointed out, “We didn’t approve it.”
In other business at Monday’s 35-minute meeting, the council:
• Approved, besides the Flop E. Bunny event on April 7, the CBC’s requests to hold the Taste of Belleville at Horizon Park from 5 to 7 p.m. on Aug. 16 and Halloween in downtown Belleville from 5 to 7 p.m. on Oct. 31;
• Approved the mayor’s appointments of Jim Shrove to the Parks and Recreation Commission and Councilman Tom Smith to the Elections Commission, both with terms to expire Dec. 31, 2015;
• Approved the timetable of meetings for preparing the 2012-13 city budget for a June 4 adoption. This starts with the presentation of the proposed budget by the city manager to the council on May 7;
• Set a special meeting for 6:30 p.m. March 15 to interview attorneys, with the goal of awarding the city attorney position at the March 19 council meeting;
• Approved accounts payable in the amount of $218,104.43 and the following departmental purchases in excess of $500: to BS&A, $695 for tech support; to DEQ, $2,000 in annual fees; to Evans Electric, $595 for repair/maintenance from general fund/DDA; to Service Electric, $2,782.35 and $5,047 for pole replacements from the general fund/DDA (with checks already in hand from the insurance company); and to Elite Cleaning, $2,060 to sanitize, on an emergency basis, a resident’s basement at 109 Bedell from sewer backup caused by a clogged main;
• Heard Mayor Conley announce that she will be setting a joint meeting between the City Council and the Downtown Development Authority in April, in advance of finalizing the budgets so the two groups can determine how they can work together;
• Heard Wolters announce that Janet Millard is the CBC’s new crafters coordinator and will be getting juried, quality crafters to Main Street;
• Heard Fielder report he gave directions to the polls to 56 Van Buren Township voters during the Feb. 28 election, since there was no sign at the high school to show voters how to get from West Columbia Avenue to their polling places at the rear of the high school. The confused VBT voters stopped at St. Anthony’s Fr. Folta building where both City of Belleville precincts were voting; and
• Heard Fielder report on Belleville Day in Florida and the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting. The commissioners are considering a Go Fly a Kite event in early May at Village Park and a fun run for kids at Village Park with the help of the Striders and the Mayor on Sept. 15.
The agenda of the next council meeting on March 19 will include a report from Maggie Watson on The Senior Alliance and the selection of city attorney.