Old Settlers carnival placement put on hold

by Nathan Arneal
Published 8/27/14

The discussion about where and how to expand the Old Settlers carnival continued at the August 19 North Bend City Council meeting.

At the August 5 meeting, Rod Johnson told the council that the carnival won’t sign a contract for 2015 Old Setters unless it gets more space to set up additional rides that it currently doesn’t have room for. Johnson, the North Bend Chamber of Commerce liaison for the D.C. Lynch Carnival, said the carnival needs to set up on cement and needs the additional street width provided by the parking stalls along the city park. D.C. Lynch wants to extend its setup about three quarters of a block north on Locust Street.

This solution would put the carnival in front of three houses belonging to Bob Soukup, David Wesely and Bob Feurer.

Soukup and Feurer said they are OK with the proposed set up.

“I don’t have a problem with it,” Soukup said. “They’ve been in front of my house before. For two or three days I could put up with it.”

Wesely’s house in the middle of the block is the only house of the three that doesn’t have access to another side street. David Wesely said he does not want the carnival in front of his house.

“It’s a huge medical problem,” David Wesely said, “as far as getting access to my property for fire or rescue.”

Chamber of Commerce member Steve Grueber said Feurer offered to let the Weselys park in a space in front of his house. But Wesely said parking wasn’t his concern.

“To deny us as citizens of North Bend the medical attention that we could need or fire attention, I just think that’s kind of degrading,” Wesely said.

The carnival would extend beyond Wesely’s property by about a quarter of a block, pushing the nearest street access to his house about 15 yards to the north.

Grueber said that didn’t necessarily mean fire and rescue units wouldn’t have access to Wesely’s property.

“Fire trucks don’t pull up in front of your house when it’s on fire,” Grueber said. “They park their machine a block or so away, hook up to a fire hydrant, and run the hoses to wherever the fire is. (Wesely) has a bigger concern, I suppose, as it relates to access in the case of a medical issue. There you have a quarter of a block from where the carnival would stop to get to David and Jennifer’s property. The distance isn’t tremendous. There’s nothing that would prevent rescue personnel from getting off the street and into their property.”

The council asked Johnson if there were any other ways to create more space for the carnival without closing the street in front of Wesely’s.

Johnson said more room could be created in the North Bend Elementary parking lot by moving the carnival workers’ campers to the east side of the school building. That would leave more room for rides on the west side. However, access to power would need to be installed on the east side for the campers to tap into.

Mayor Jeff Kluthe asked if it would be possible for the D.C. Lynch carnival manager to stop in North Bend and study options. Johnson said that would likely have to wait until October, when the carnival circuit is over. Kluthe asked if that would be too late for North Bend to sign up for next year’s Old Settlers.

“(The carnival manager) is keeping the date open,” Johnson said. “He hasn’t booked anybody else, but he’s probably got six different venues that would be more than happy to take our date.”

Kluthe said any further discussion or decisions will be put on hold until the carnival manager can drop in for a visit. Until then, Kluthe said, all options will remain on the table.

In other council business:

• Kent Speicher of the accounting firm of Erikson and Brooks attended the meeting to go over the proposed budge for the 2014-2015 fiscal year.
Speicher audits several cities and villages and said North Bend is in good financial shape.

“Most of the ones I deal with struggle much more,” Speicher told the council, “and I deal with both smaller towns and larger towns than you. You guys are in great shape. This is one of the easiest budgets I do.”

A budget hearing will be held Sept. 16 before the council passes a budget that will go into effect Oct. 1.

• Sept. 2 is the deadline to put an issue on the ballot for the November election. The council agreed to move forward with putting a referendum on the ballot to allow the council to pass a ordinance allowing ATV’s, utility vehicles and golf carts to be driven on the city streets of North Bend.

<<Back to the front page