(10/4)
Tempers flared at the Sept. 25 Thurmont town
meeting as PTA representatives protested a
February decision by the commissioners to
raise the parking rates at Colofest. Instead,
they preferred making less money in order to
keep the parking rate no higher than $5 per
car.
In March,
the commissioner voted to increase the cost of
a permits was increased from $27 to $30;
parking fees were increased from $5 to $8 with
the additional $3 going to the town and bus
parking was increased from $25 to $50. The
changes were made to cover the rising costs of
the expenses the town incurs when the festival
runs each year.
“We cannot
run in the red and make the taxpayers foot the
bill for Colorfest,” Mayor Martin Burns said.
The reason
the town was able to raise the parking rates
originally is because the town provides free
bus service from those locations. This makes
locations like Thurmont Elementary and
Catoctin High reasonable places to park.The
money raised at parking at schools used to be
split 50-50 between the PTA and town, but the
commissioners decided to give all of the money
to the PTAs in 2001 to help their fundraising
efforts. So when the need came to raise the
rates, the commissioners didn’t want to take
back some of the money they were providing the
schools.
“They’re
not losing a dime,” Burns said. “They’re
getting all the money they’re used to. They
only thing is it was increased $3 which comes
back to the town.”
Georgine
Norwood with the Thurmont Primary PTA told the
commissioners, “We appreciate the effort, We
rode the coattails of that as long as we
could.”
However,
three PTA representatives said that they had
not been included in the discussions and that
they didn’t want the fees raised because it
would mean their parking volunteers would have
more abuse heaped on them and thus make it
harder to find volunteers.
“People
they complain, they cuss, they spit on
people…The $8 will be an issue. The $5 is an
issue,” said Lisa Kerr with the Thurmont
Elementary PTA.
Kerr said
instead of raising the fee to $8, it could
remain at $5 and the town could have 10
percent. Thurmont Elementary generates about
$3,000 during an average Colorfest weekend
parking cars so instead of keeping $3,000 they
were willing to keep $2,700 and give $300 to
the town.
If the town
didn’t agree to this, Kerr said, “We have the
support of the principal to close off the
parking lot and then you get nothing.”
This would
also mean that the PTA would get nothing.
Nancy King
with the Thurmont Middle School PTA said the
main reason for the PTA’s resistance was
problems the increase would create for the
volunteers who help with parking.
“We don’t
mind giving the town money,” King said. “We
want to make it as easy for the volunteers as
possible.”
Burns
wanted to know why this resistance to the
increase was coming nearly eight months after
the decision was made.
Tempers
then began to flare between Burns and
Commissioner Ron Terpko over who was
responsible for setting up the meetings about
the issue earlier in the year, between Burns
and Kerr over e-mails before the meeting and
whether the town owed the parking money to the
school to help the students, and between the
PTA and Colorfest reps over how the parking
situation could be handled.
Once
everyone calmed down, the commissioners voted
3-2 to rescind the $8 parking fee and accept
10 percent of the $5 parking fee.
Anyone
interested in volunteering to help park cars
at the town schools should call Norwood at
(301) 271-2293. Colorfest will be held Oct. 13
and 14.
