Truesdale city leaders have pledged multiple times that they were dedicated to making this year’s Railroad Days festival happen. Festival vendors, however, did not share their enthusiasm.
Due to …
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Truesdale city leaders have pledged multiple times that they were dedicated to making this year’s Railroad Days festival happen. Festival vendors, however, did not share their enthusiasm.
Due to low commitments for festival booths, Truesdale aldermen voted Aug. 12 to cancel Railroad Days, which was scheduled for the first Saturday of October. Truesdale’s National Night Out event, which had been combined with Railroad Days this year, is also canceled.
City staff said only one commercial vendor had registered for the festival. Although other vendors have expressed interest, aldermen said the city needed more reassurance that it would recoup the money it spends to organize the festival and provide entertainment.
“We can’t spend $15,000 on this, and then have one vendor there. We can’t recoup the taxpayer dollars... to spend it on more events like this, if that’s the case,” said Alderman Robert Green. He added that vendors might have been waiting to see if the event was actually going to happen, but that it would be too difficult to plan the festival around what those vendors might do.
Alderman Jerry Cannon added that the festival’s long-term reputation could have been damaged if it was allowed to proceed without an adequate number of attractions for visitors.
City Treasurer Elsa Smith-Fernandez, one of the chief organizers of Railroad Days and National Night Out, said a decision had to happen now because of supply orders that needed to be made ahead of the festival.
“As much as I would like to see something happen in the community, I would be OK ... just to cancel everything and put all our efforts toward next year,” Smith-Fernandez said.
Aldermen agreed with that sentiment, voting 3-0 to call off the festival. Alderman Joe Brooks was absent.
There remains an unresolved question of whether Truesdale next year will host an event for National Night Out, which brings community members together with first responders. Organizers said the National Night Out event is supposed relocate to a different community in the county every two years.
Aldermen said they’ll have to consider whether to claim a ‘rain check’ and try to host the event in 2021, or allow it to pass to the next community in line.
