OFF THE WIRE
By Julie Clements
El Dorado Times
Posted Aug 10, 2010 @ 12:00 PM
Last update Aug 11, 2010 @ 03:39 PM
El Dorado, Kan. — Although it was agreed the First Sunday Cassoday Motorcycle Ride would not be cancelled, there are still several concerns to be worked out by the Cassoday City Council following a townhall meeting Monday evening.
Residents, business members, vendors, council members and motorcyclists attended the meeting to discuss concerns and ideas that arose after a petition was circulated by residents to end the ride.
One new issue was brought to the attention of those in attendance.
Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy informed the group the sheriff’s department would no longer be able to provide the extra officers during the monthly rides.
“Our law enforcement presence up here is going to have to end,” Murphy said.
He said when the ride started, his office was approached about providing security and they were asked about Cassoday hiring an officer, to which he said they could not afford it. Since then, the sheriff’s office has been providing officers for the event, with up to eight attending now.
That cost adds up to $26,000 a season because of the overtime the deputies receive.
“I don’t have that kind of money in my overtime budget,” he said. “Last Sunday was the last Sunday we will send officers here.”
He said the best he could do was give Cassoday a district officer, although that officer may not always be available when needed.
The cost issue arose when Potwin voiced a desire to host the motorcycle riders and wanted to have officers for their event.
Murphy said he would have to charge Potwin for that, and he would have to start charging Cassoday as well.
“The bare truth is we couldn’t continue anyway,” he said.
Murphy did feel security was needed.
“You have outlaw gang bikers in this town for motorcycle Sunday,” he told the group. “They have tried to recruit up here. That’s what we brought in officers for. It is here.”
Kurt Oswald, publisher of Roll Easy Kansas, asked which groups were there so they could try to help, but Murphy would not say which groups were there.
“If you know your motorcycle groups, you know which ones are here,” Murphy told him.
But Oswald said he had never seen any there.
Murphy also said there was alcohol at the event, citing two instances they discovered last Sunday.
“Last Sunday alone four people headed here from Newton crashed,” he continued. “The wreck history up here is not good. Somebody is going to get hurt; we know that.
“If you continue to do this up here, that is fine, but we can’t provide officers to do it. I think the event was a good idea in the beginning and it may be a good idea now, but you have to control it.”
Randy Wells, who is the treasurer of the Cassoday Business Organization, asked why they didn’t just send two officers to Cassoday and two to Potwin, which would save money.
Murphy said they still didn’t have it in the budget to do that.
Randy Wells went on to address the issue of alcohol.
“We as the Cassoday Business Organization will not allow alcohol sales or pornography at all,” he said, pointing out there was no city ordinance against walking down the street drinking a beer.
One of the vendors in attendance suggested having the vendors pay extra to cover the cost of security.
Another issue addressed was who benefits from the ride.
It was asked how many Cassoday businesses are open on Sunday, to which it was said there were five. There also were 38 vendors in August, although the average is 20 to 21.
It also was asked how much sales tax Cassoday receives from the vendors.
Mayor Don Rommelfanger said there was no way to check that out.
He said there was supposed to be a report to the state on the number of vendors at each event throughout the year, but he said the only money Cassoday saw from that might be a little bit of money for highways.
As one possible solution Rommelfanger suggested maybe they could control the number of bikes, although it was not determined how that could be done.
Randy Wells suggested maybe the city could implement a one-cent sales tax, similar to El Dorado’s, which could then be used to lower property taxes like El Dorado does, although the citizens did not agree that would work. One concern was everyone in Cassoday would have to pay it as well.
Another suggestion was to sell buttons to the bikers for the event, but the concern on that was how to get them all to purchase one. It also would cause the city to have to purchase event insurance.
One biker in attendance, Staci Addison, questioned what added benefit the bikers would receive for purchasing the button. She said she didn’t think it was a bad idea, but they would have to have a reason to start purchasing a button where they hadn’t had to previously.
One resident offered that they would have improved streets from it, but Addison said the streets were not a problem for her.
The city council went on to express concern over expenses they have, but it was mentioned the expense of the porta-potties is covered by the Business Organization through vendor fees.
Rommelfanger said the citizens had to see a good reason to let the ride go on.
“The city’s not gaining,” he said. “The goal is to make our community a little better. The whole idea of tourism is to generate money.”
Randy Wells said he offered a number of times to sit down with the council to talk about what they can offer Cassoday, but so far no one has offered to do that.
“Nobody talks to us,” he said.
He pointed out when the city council was collecting vendor fees in 1994 or 1995 they decided they didn’t want to do it anymore and asked the Business Organization to take it over.
“It wasn’t that we didn’t want it,” Rommelfanger said. “It was that we were not reaping the benefits.”
Randy disagreed and pointed out they have built the bike run up from 1,000 bikes when they took over to 5,000 to 6,000 today.
“We’ve done everything we’ve been asked to do by the city,” he continued.
Rommelfanger said the first year the Business Organization took it over the council wanted to see if they were making expenses.
“We were supposed to review it every year,” he continued.
“No one ever said anything about reviewing it,” Randy Wells said.
“We’re trying to get along. “We’ve had no problems. The bikers have been great people.”
He went on to say they heard good comments on the “quiet” signs and welcome signs that were put up.
Addison told the group she rides up there because she wants to help.
She asked when the council would know what the bikers could do to help.
“There are more of us who will do the right thing than the wrong thing, but we have to know what you need,” she said, but she did not receive an answer as to what the council needed from them.
She also offered that the council should talk to the biker leaders, saying they can’t say talking to the biker leaders won’t work if they haven’t tried it.
“I keep coming and saying what can we do, how can we help, give me some information to work with and all I get is ‘we need control,’” Addison said. “What does that mean?”
It was pointed out they do not know yet what they need to do.
“At what point do you know?” Addison questioned. “We’ve been doing this for 17 years.”
“I think it’s time the rumblings stop and we start talking about how to fix this. We know it’s not working, according to you.”
She suggested they put together a resident council and city council to fix this.
One resident said he had opened up an area for parking this month and that did help with some of the parking issues, but a few residents were still concerned about the bikers walking and driving across their yards.
Ron Wells, a Cassoday resident who lives near the rally, was still upset about the event.
“We want some controls,” he said. “I would like to be able to get in and out of my driveway. We had had to get this petition stirred up because there was no way to get anyone to listen to us.”
He asked for more control because people weren’t picking up trash.
He also wanted a path for the ambulance and fire truck to get down Main Street.
“If outside people want to come into our town we appreciate that,” he said. “I agree it is an advantage.”
But he wanted everyone to get together to work on it.
“Our goal is to make our citizens who are complaining and asking us
to shut this down, for us to come us with some ways to make it acceptable for them,” Rommelfanger said.
Another citizen felt they should get something for being inconvenienced.
“It keeps going back to money and that’s OK,” Randy Wells said. “Just say it: We want money from you.”
“It’s not money,” Rommelfanger said.
“Why don’t you guys think about what you want to do,” Randy Wells said, adding that they would look at the security issue.
“If the town will say this is what we want we will shell money out because we want to make a difference,” Addison said. “We don’t want the bad reputation, but we’ve not been given the opportunity. We support your kids; we support local businesses if they are open. We will eat at the restaurant when it gets open. We will do what we’re asked, but we have to know what you want. That’s the piece that is missing.”
“It’s about our community and being respectful,” Rommelfanger said.
He said they agree the rally should continue, but there are some issues to work out.
He said the next step is for the Business Organization to have a good meeting and he hopes they invite some members from the biker community to see if they can’t work out some of the issues for their citizens.
“I know the business organization has been working diligently,” he said.
The city council will again discuss the issue at their meeting Wednesday evening, although Rommelfanger didn’t think there was any action to be taken.
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