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Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra Tammy’s views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his pastor, Tammy’s neighbors, Wayne Mayo, Betsy Johnson, Brad Witt, Former President Trump, Henry Heimuller, Joe Biden, Pat Robertson, Ted Cruz, Joe Biden’s dogs, or Claudia Eagle’s Cats. This Tammy’s Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or even reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she refuses to be bullied by anyone. See Bill’s Standard Disclaimer
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Halloween Town ’s a success! Yeh, lets change tourism companies. Real smart
HALLOWEEN TOWN
Here we go again, the weekly issue talked about at council meetings, work sessions etc.the St Helens City Council has decided that they can’t stand that E2C tourism is a success. They have been attacking the tourism director non-stop. Their petty complaints are always non-founded, childish and frankly ignorant. Like all new things or events it gets better and better each year.
Tin Curry has brought tourism to the city of St Helens. She has done her job, she has made this year over $700,000 profit filling the city coffers! And the city wants to replace E2C.What a crock of manure. They want an audit, thinking its either not enough money in the city coffers or its too much. There are the only two possibilities. The citys previous tourism ideas were complete failures. The city wanted to be on the map, E2C completed that task and put St Helens on the map with Halloween Town. Halloween Town brings folks from across the country, and other nations. Bringing in tourism dollars and a lot of them.
And when the Fireworks event was going to fail, they threw that mess on Tina. and Tina held a wonderful and successful fire works event. Without Tina we probably would not have had a fireworks event. She has utilized Sand Island, and made it so anyone can participate in event held there. Like the sand castle contest. St Helens never had one of those until Tina organized one. Everyone with a lick of sense understands that most businesses or events run in the red until their events happen. For example Black Friday. Most businesses receive most of their entire yearly revenue from Black Friday to Christmas. So do we consider all these retail stores as failures because the books look like they are running in the red up until then? No we do not.
The complaints that were made about Tina in the beginning were never addressed to Tina, these people just complained without speaking to Tina. Problems do not get solved that way. Once the councilmembers actually spoke to Tina like adults, the issues were discussed and things got addressed one way or the other, , that’s how adults and professionals work. You have an issue you talk to the event planner or event coordinators and resolve the issue.
Tina brings thousands of dollars into local non profit’s as well. Money these community organizations would not have without her success and cool ideas to make extra dollars.
Shame on the City Council members who remain childish, immature and ignorant. Shame on them for trying to ruin success, shame on them for promoting and Insisting on initiating a witch hunt continually on the Queen of Halloween Town all year round.
The city wanted people to come to down town they got their wish, the downtown businesses are making money. These are all good things so why ruin it? I’ts not about success it’s about jealously E2C succeeded where they have failed and their silly little ego’s cant handle it.
Below is a letter written by Stephanie Patterson, The paper didn't mention that the shortage of $27,000 was caused by the difference in the City's fiscal year, running July 1st through June 30th, as opposed to a regular business fiscal year running from January to December. There is no actual shortage by the time October rolls around. It's run like this for eight years (even b4 E2C was here) and there are other accounts that also show negative while awaiting the money due to arrive every year. The committee simply suggests it be changed to more accurately reflect what actually happens with the difference in fiscal cycles. There are a few people in the City who have had a hard time understanding this concept (like the property tax statements - the cycle runs July 1 to June 30, but are due in November) Frankly we go through this every time we have to explain to new people not familiar with the process. The planning for most events like 13 Nights and Halloweentown starts now. Actually, we've been working with the vendors from last year from November 2021. In the article, vendor complaints were mentioned. Tina and I met with the vendors. Of the ten who were concerned, only five came to express those concerns which were addressed, and as of today, all but two vendors from last year have re-signed precontracts for 2022. I run the vendor court and if anyone has any questions you can PM me and I'll be happy to talk with you. I'd also like to thank the Chronicle for mentioning the other side of the issue in a fair and balanced way. In April of last year, there was a tourism meeting. During the meeting, many vendors, businesses, and civic groups spoke on behalf of E2C and the amazing job Tina Curry has done in bringing people to town to spend money in the fall and also making sure 13 Nights survived the disaster of2020. Our businesses are hanging on and in no little part thanks to the dollars generated by tourism events. While we lost one restaurant, three new ones have taken their place - not to mention our wonderful food carts. A special shout out to Eat@ George for his spectacular job in Old Town this Halloween Season. Remember - all the work sessions and Council meetings are online. If you have concerns, please watch them. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… Halloween Town is like any other event if you choose to participate great if you don’t that’s ok too. But lets not ruin a money making event, because of ego’s. I suggest you view the city council meetings, if you want to see the Keystone Cops please do so, you will be surprised but not pleasantly.
Tammy
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