Most will agree that Silver City Days was a grand old time this year.
Downtown Trail was alive for five days drawing huge crowds to the midway and food court, Saturday parade, Sidewalk Café and fireworks as well as numerous special events including Family Fun Day at Gyro Park.
So the $9,000 price tag is a good deal for such a successful “Homecoming Celebration,” says Coun. Sandy Santori, noting costs were defrayed by the many volunteers, non profits and local business sponsors.
As Trail council’s committee lead for the event, Santori detailed the final Silver City Days budget during the Monday night regular meeting.
“Just to sum things up I want to elaborate on the operating deficit,” he explained. “In the past, SCD (Silver City Days) received a $40,000 grant from the city and in addition to that $14,500 in in-kind services.”
Besides covering the expenses to run all the venues, the city paid all the labour costs related to manpower (city employees and management) and funded Saturday’s $4,500 VIP function in the McIntyre Room.
“So the short of it is, had we not paid the facility rentals and if we did not pay the labour costs, the actually event would have garnered a profit of $7,173,” Santori added. “So at the end of the day, we were able to put on a party that I think the majority of people enjoyed. And it was an opportunity for us to showcase our community and the people of our community, and we were able to do that without using any of the $40,000 from our budget.”
Actual revenues neared $68,000 which exceeded the budgeted revenue of about $57,000.
Additionally, first-time midway provider Shooting Star Amusements contributed 35 per cent (almost $24,000) of the actual total revenues with almost $19,000 for contracted franchise fees and $5,000 from the one time signing bonus.
Corporate sponsorships amounted to $18,700 and the Spokane Street Food Fair was the third largest revenue generator with $13,700 or 20 per cent of actual total revenues.
“All in all, financially, it was a success,” Santori said. “And I do express on behalf of the city and planning committee, thank you to (all those) who sponsored many of the events including the fireworks. Not to mention all the volunteers and non profits who chipped in tremendously and made it such a success,” he concluded. “That puts to bed 2016 Silver City Days, now we’ll get on with 2017.”
Mayor Mike Martin echoed Santori’s sentiments, congratulating the organizing team and all the volunteers who helped make the event so memorable.
“It’s really just icing on the cake,” he said. “It’s not often council receives a report of such as wonderful event that essentially was a low cost to the city. It was a tremendous feat, so 2017 here we come.”
In all, the city received $18,700 in donations: $7,000 from ATCO Wood Products; Teck, $5,000; COWI (bridge consultants) $3,000; True Consulting, $2,500; and MMM Group, $1,200. The total doesn’t include other in-kind donations such as wood from Maglio Building Centre and labour from Hil Tech Contracting to build new picnic tables for the Spokane Street Food Fair.