Good Old Days gets the Axe?

Tonight is the night when the village board votes on whether to front the $6000 estimated to cover the expenses of putting on Good Old Days. Word on the street is the future of Good Old Days is not so bright. In advance of this important vote it is worth while to reflect back on Good Old Days, what it means to the village, the citizens of Winfield and the charities that use the festival as one of their major funding sources.

Good Old Days is primarily a Winfield Chamber of Commerce production. It happens through a monumental effort of the chamber, local charities like the Knights of Columbus, Lions Club, Winfield Juniors and others. Everyone provides what they can in time, labor and equipment. The hope is everyone makes money on the event and through teamwork and cooperation they all have a few dollars to run their operations for the year. The Lions run the music and beer garden, the Knights provide food, the chamber organizes the whole event and picks a rides & games vendor and tells everyone where their operating space is in the layout of the fair. The village usually supplies support through public works by delivering and setting up the street barricades and providing police security. As we have already heard, the village’s portion of the costs for their part is $6000.

It is worth noting that through true entrepreneurial spirit the rest of the stakeholders in Good Old Days pony up cash in huge amounts to help make Good Old Days a success. The Knights pre-buy all the food that they serve. The Lions book bands, rent tents, buy beer and rent sound systems that cost very substantial amounts of money for the 3 day event. If the weather turns nasty or if people don’t show up, all the people that purchased supplies, rented equipment and contracted with musicians are out their money.

The chamber, who is almost a charity, has had historic revenues of:

Year           Profit
2000          $13,580
2001          $14,926
2002          $19,349
2003          $12,377
2004          $14,966
2005          $8,355
2006          $1833
2007          $5085
2008          $5816
2009          $2919

As you can see, there is not enough money to pay $6000 to the village and there hasn’t been for 4 years.

What is clear is everyone is coming to the table with something. If the village doesn’t pony up the $6000 then what exactly is their contribution to this? What is their contribution to ANYTHING that happens in this town. Towns like Lombard, Roselle, Wheaton and others all have events that create the ties-that-bind their residents into a community. Quality-of-Life events turn individuals that live in a town into a community with spirit. We have no fireworks on the 4th of July, we have no parades outside of Good Old Days, there is no “Taste of Winfield”, no Easter Egg Hunts…

It bothers me that they don’t take more ownership of Good Old Days. The way I see it is if Good Old Days should fail, even if the Chamber should get the $6000, then the failure should be owned by the trustees who lack of vision or leadership to create or champion their own events. Having been at the Chamber of Commerce planning meeting for Good Old Days, there was not a single village employee or politician to be seen.

If Good Old Days gets the axe tonight, our disinterested trustees should get the axe come election time.