by John Dowd
During last week’s Stevensville Town Council meeting, there was much conflict, confusion and disagreement between the public and the council. This all revolved around Resolution 540A, and the adopting of a fee schedule and charges for special events that take place in the town.
This resolution was met with heated controversy specifically by Stevensville community members involved in the Stevensville Harvest Valley Farmers Market.
During the meeting, the council jumped ahead, past the approval of the farmers market’s special event permits, and voted on the approval of 540A, which would substantially change the way the town charges for special events. This was done because these changes would then be put into effect for any special event permits passed after the resolution’s approval.
The resolution in question is a reworking of an original resolution that has been in effect for over 16 years, one which, according to Mayor Jim Crews, has not been followed in all that time.
“We tried to change this to make it work for everyone,” said Crews, but members of the farmers market would disagree.
The concerns over the resolution were based on arbitrary changes, and unclear language. These broke down into two main concerns; one over the fee for power usage, and the other over permit renewals.
The first of these, the power use fee, would see the town start charging $20 per-event, per-day. This language changed multiple times during the meeting, leading to great confusion, both amongst the council members and the listening public. The terms “panel,” outlet,” “spider box” and more were used to describe where a user might plug in to power. However, all of the terms used technically mean different things. For many in the public, it was clear that this language discrepancy could lead to a lot of grey area. However, during the meeting, Crews responded to the concern stating that it should be clear to everyone what they mean.
Former Stevensville Civic Club President Sean Doyle spoke to try to clear up some of the discrepancy for council and community. The Civic Club owns the spider boxes, which essentially turn one outlet into many. His concern was also over food trucks, saying that during some events, there can be up to six food trucks plugged in to power across town.
“What exactly does this $20-per-event-per day mean?” asked Doyle.“I guarantee those six food trucks are using more than $20 per day,” he added.
Additionally, prior to Doyle’s comments, Crews spoke on how the town is currently experimenting with meters they can attach to track how much power users actually consume. Crews stated, “It will probably be less than the $20, for most people.”
Another concern brought forth by Doyle was that the meters are not universal, and there are in fact multiple outlet types around town, as far as their power output. Doyle was curious if there would be different charges for each. Doyle advised that the resolution might need to be more detailed before it gets passed. The public consensus was that the new resolution seemed rushed, especially regarding power. However, with some hastily altered language, it was passed anyway.
Under the supervision of the mayor, the council decided to go ahead with the vote, and changed the language to state $20 per-day, per-event per outlet. This did not seem to satisfy the community in attendance. As for the meters, they will continue to see how viable an option that would be, and according to Crews, might eventually offer a more affordable option.
The second main concern was the new renewal fee, and the nature of the need to renew a permit of an ongoing event every two weeks.
The new resolution would also charge permit filer fees to $15 per renewal, and in order to meet with town code, ongoing events would need to renew every two weeks. Being that the farmers market is 23 weeks long, they would need to renew numerous times.
This cost to continuously renew would be on top of the $125 it already costs to file a special event permit for the first time each year. However, the issue goes deeper. In the past, there was a special identification for “annual events” that were only charged $100 to file, and included events like the Creamery Picnic and the Stevensville Harvest Valley Farmers Market. The new resolution would eliminate that option, charging everyone the $125 to file for a permit.
Former town council member Stacie Barker spoke during the meeting. She has been involved with the farmers market for at least the last 14 years. She was very concerned with these fees, stating that the market organizers don’t make money on the event and for some vendors, the market is their primary income. These added costs would eat into that.
In a later interview with Barker, she stated the increase would bring the cost of permitting and holding the farmers market from about $220 to over $800 for the year. She said the market does not make much, and what little they do they put back into the community through fundraisers and charities. Everything else goes into promotions of the event, insurance, sponsorships and permitting.
These changes would cut down on that and would likely come back down on vendors. Barker added that some vendors pay for the whole season ahead of time and this is why the farmers market organizers “put applications in in January to get everything in line for this,” said Barker.
“I feel that he [Crews] is taking the market away from the community and this is a disservice to Stevensville.” She added that these new regulations may “run a lot of these small events out of town.” In fact, the farmers market is considering moving to another location, said Barker.
During the meeting, Barker also asked what that $15 processing fee was for. Though it does seem arbitrary, Crews said it would be to cover the time of the office staff who have to file the paperwork. Barker responded, saying that the office staff are already going to do that, as it is part of their job and they are on the clock when they file any paperwork.
Barker was also concerned about the reasoning behind why they would need to renew the permit every two weeks. However, according to Crews, the rule of renewal has been in town law for a long time. This altered resolution would take that into account. In the Stevensville Municipal Code, ordinance 22.315 (b), it states: “If multiple days are requested, attach additional sheets with a schedule. If the event is an ongoing event, the permit must be renewed every two weeks and subject to approval of the Town Council.”
In order to remove the two-week reapplication requirement, the council would have to pass an ordinance, a more cumbersome process than passing a resolution. Jess Bundren, the current head of the farmers market, said that to change an ordinance, a town must go through the town attorney, the town council, a public comment period, then the state, and then there are fees attached to this. So, that is not so easy a proposition. However, what she is unclear on is why there is an added $15 fee per renewal, which was not present in the original resolution and is not required by the ordinance in question.
The other problem with all of this is that the council may have made an error in voting to pass resolution 540A before they then approved the permit submitted by the farmers market. This is because the permit they approved was the former permit, which has different language than the new permit that goes along with the resolution. The passage of the new permit was tabled, so it is unclear if this will mean the farmers market is grandfathered in as far as how they proceed for renewal, and how they will be charged. The town may have also put itself in conflict with its own new law.
It is clear, in the documents, that the amount stated in the farmers market’s permit was adjusted up to $125 ahead of the meeting, but the permit the market filed also specifies the full 23-week period over which the event will occur.
Town council meeting notes
by John Dowd
During the public comment period at the beginning of the Stevensville Town Council meeting on February 12, Stevensville High School students Cole Stuber and Jacob Wallace spoke about fundraising for their trip to the national “We the People” competition in Washington, D.C. They will need about $22,000 for the trip, and according to Stuber, “we have already put a decent dent in that so far.” However, any assistance from the community would be appreciated, and they said they are excited to represent Stevensville and Montana at nationals. Any assistance can be directed towards Stevensville High School.
In the airport report, Brian Germane, Stevensville airport manager, talked about how there have been some lighting failures over the last several weeks. They have been troubleshooting the problem and have replaced the faulty lights. However, there is another, more significant problem. According to Germane, the remote decoder is failing, which could cost as much as $4,500 to replace. The part is over 40 years old, and with an airport that does not have manned traffic control, it is essential. This part allows pilots in the air to “key” their mics in a pattern that the airport lighting system will respond to, activating the runway lighting at night time. Without this remote activation, pilots are literally flying blind at night. According to Germane, the FAA has been notified, and flights in and out at night are not allowed until the issue is resolved. Germane said, “Even though we did all this work on the lights, we can’t even turn them on.”
Also during the meeting, the council voted to adopt park hours for Stevensville River Park. Now, the park will be open to the public only during daylight hours. According to Stevensville Police Chief John Boe, the reason behind this is that the department has had numerous calls to the park during night hours. This has been due to damage to property, overnight camping, and more. Boe believes this will significantly deter potential criminal activity there.
Council member Wally Smith asked if there was a plan to adjust for winter hours. Boe explained that that was why they chose to be open for daylight hours only. Longer days during the summer will mean longer open times, and shorter days in winter will mean shorter open hours.
Also during the meeting, Smith nominated Melissa Bailey, a newly elected council member, to hold the council president position. She was voted in unanimously.
At the end of the meeting, Smith spoke again, stating the town has “quite a list of corrections,” in order to “iron out all these things.” Smith said this regarding controversy over another issue covered during the meeting, the new special event permit and a new fee schedule (see accompanying story). According to Smith and Mayor Crews, they want to clarify all the language and follow it to the letter.
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