Agenda - Council Work Session - 02/16/2021 - Special

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CC Special Work Session Meeting Date: 02/16/2021 Title: Discussion Regarding the Planning of 2021 City Events Purpose/Background: The purpose of this case is to gather Council feedback and to provide direction to staff in terms of how to commence in the planning of upcoming City events including: the Summer Concert Series, the EDA Business Expo, EDA Golf Tournament, the EDA Business Networking Event, the Happy Days Festival, and the Christmas Tree-Lighting/Santa Claus Event. Globally, Staff is approaching event planning for 2021 with smaller, in -person events beginning in Spring/early Summer and slowly building up to larger events in the fall, consistent with public health forecasts related to the COVID-19 Pandemic. This is simply a planning level forecast and event planning is subject to change. In order to host larger, in -person events, improvements in the public health pandemic, along with subsequent orders of the State of Minnesota must be achieved. Summer Concert Series: It summary, Staff is planning on a full season of Thursday evening concerts for 2021, unless Council desires differently. The Covid-19 protocols put in place last Summer appeared to be tenable, and residents expressed appreciation to Council leadership for moving ahead with the concerts even though residents were mandated to space out within the amphitheater, and reservations were required for seating. It may be noted that there is more Staff time involved in hosting the concerts with the above measures in place, and also that it was fortunate there were extra volunteers last Summer to check reservations and help ensure compliance with the protocols. It is not known if volunteers will be available for 2021. Happy Days Festival: Previously in 2020, a Special Meeting of the Happy Days Committee was called on Thursday, May 14. The purpose of the meeting was for the committee to provide a recommendation to the City Council as to whether the annual Happy Days festival be canceled, modified or commence as usual. City staff provided an update on COVID-19, shared a message from State Fair officials, presented research regarding what other Counties and Cities are doing in regard to their fairs and festivals, reviewed what a modified version of Happy Days could look like and provided a recommendation to the Committee. Staffs recommendation was to cancel the 2020 Happy Days Festival for the following reasons: 1. Budget 2. Staffing (Discuss Administrative Intern & One FT Employee Leave of Absence [LOA]) 3. Sponsorships 4. Volunteers 5. Governor's most recent recommendations Committee members provided feedback on staffs presentation. The minutes of the May 14 meeting are attached to this case. Also attached to this case are Staffs presentation/notes. Please note that, despite staffs best efforts to provide physically -distanced outdoor events, the 2020 event was rained -out. Christmas Tree-Lighting/Santa Claus Event: The pandemic orders caused the City to implement alternatives to the tree lighting and Santa event gatherings of the past several years. As an alternative, the City put lights on approximately quarter -mile of trees between City Hall and the retail area near Coborn's. The City produced a Facebook feature of the City Hall Christmas tree decorated by the Garden Club, and had Christmas related art projects available for residents. The City also explored other options like lighting up the Parking Ramp elevator tower, which was determinded not to be feasible. Staff is seeking direction on winter events and types of activities