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Canfield First Night seeks banners in city - Council says no
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Saunders
By ROBERT CONNELLY
CANFIELD
Jack Saunders has been appealing to Canfield City Council in recent years for banners to hang in the city to raise awareness for First Night Canfield.
The event, in year 16 of the New Year’s Eve celebration, features different locations focusing on arts and music while providing alcohol-free entertainment. The event goes from 5 p.m. to midnight on New Year’s Eve and ends with a fireworks show for the New Year. Admission is $10, which comes with a pin, and patrons age 18 and under are admitted free.
Saunders, a Canfield First Night board member who also handles the group’s finances, has appealed directly to Canfield council with different approaches about banners on the city light poles surrounding the Village Green. Even though Canfield City Council elected not to vote on the matter, Saunders told council Dec. 3, “I’m still going to pursue it.”
“Right now when we go through our town, there’s nothing there. We have nothing. Right now we put the wreaths around the Green and that’s it. I mean, to drive through town you don’t know if it’s been abandoned or if something’s going on,” said Saunders.
City attorney Mark Fortunato told him there wasn’t enough council support to put it for a vote that night, that it fell 3-2 in talks between Fortunato and each member of council individually.
After the meeting, Councilman Don Dragish and council President Steve Rogers said they were in favor of allowing the banners.
Rogers said no one else has asked about banners on the light poles over the time he has been on council, 12 years now. Fortunato explained his position and the city’s position.
“It’s a fine concept. Wonderful idea. Wonderful organization. [Council] just had to be ready to let every other organization do it,” Fortunato said. “So to a certain extent, allowing [city banners] was creating a little bit of a Pandora’s box in terms of what would happen down the road in the future.”
“If we could limit this to a specific time that was for First Night only ... I would be in favor of it,” Councilman John Morvay said. “But it creates a slippery slope.”
He also gave suggestions to Saunders of fundraising ideas, specifically magnetic stickers on a vehicle’s gas door. It would feature the event’s name and be given to donors. The idea of using utility poles, not light poles, was shot down by Ohio Edison, Rogers said. He said another councilman would have supported the banners if utility poles had been usable.
Sarah Drokin, executive director of Canfield First Night, has come in this year with new ideas to make sure the event isn’t the same thing every year. The group hires a new executive director every two to three years. She emphasized the easiness of the event, from buses for older or disabled attendees to looking at allowing payment online.
“It’s just so nice to have the township and city behind it,” she noted.
“Going with the banners, we could broaden the base of individuals ... more money from that might lift the burdens off businesses” that support us, said Richard Bowden, Canfield First Night board member.
Rogers said he has seen other communities hang banners for events, such as Salem and Canton, and his main concern was if the light poles could hold them. “As much as I would love to have [banners], our law director is pretty adamantly against it because we are more or less opening the floodgates,” Rogers said. “For me, I would still like to see them if they are done right and are tasteful.”
This is going on while Salem has canceled its New Year’s event this year, formerly known as First Night.
Bill Schilling is a committee member of New Year’s Eve Salem and said the decision was based on attendance.
“We could be more effective in the community doing other things,” Schilling said the committee noted when it made the decision not to host its New Year’s Eve event. “We are certainly open to opening it back up again. ... What we really need is that someone who has a certain vision and a leader that has a vision for that event.”
Salem did feature banners throughout its city for the event — something Saunders is wanting for Canfield — and Schilling said the committee made a one-time investment for the banners and maintained them throughout the event’s 10-year existence. A city official said the city is responsible for putting up and taking down banners, such as “Welcome to Salem” and holiday banners. No groups or organizations had a banner besides New Year’s Eve Salem.