After several news reports including ours indicated the parade had been cancelled, Hot August Nights said they were deciding to have it after all.
In an email Wednesday night, Landon Miller from the communications team at the City of Reno wrote that “upon further review of the adopted fee schedule, it was determined that meter bag fees do not apply to special events. This fee will be removed from current special event permits and refunded to those events who have already paid it. In regards to Hot August Nights, this adjustment will reduce their permit fees by $19,152.”
“Hot August Nights is giving big props to Mayor [Hillary] Schieve and the City of Reno for proactively reaching out and helping to develop a solution that truly demonstrates to our 6,000 registered car participants, we want you here,” said Deny Dotson, executive director for Hot August Nights. “Our participants felt that they were going to miss out and thanks to the Mayor and the city, they won’t. We are now calling on our registered car participants to demonstrate how much this means to you by joining in on the cruise on the final day of our event. And to the public we say, come on out. We look forward to seeing you there.”
Festivities will kick off Friday in Virginia City, followed by the Bonanza Casino Cruising for the Cure event Sunday, with week long showcases and competitions across northern Nevada, and concluding with the August 11th finale back to being a parade down Virginia Street.
A previous statement released to media indicated: “We plan to work with the City of Reno to safely produce the nation’s largest 10-day nostalgic car show. The decision to change the format from a parade to a rules of the road cruise ensures we continue to celebrate our classic car culture without any additional costs.”
According to previously announced City requirements, this event would need over 150 meters bagged, costing about $20,000, which had not previously been imposed on the Hot August Nights drive through parade.
Even though the organization applied and received a sponsorship grant from the city which would have essentially waived this particular fee, organizers initially decided to go in a different direction to save some money, before reversing course.
“Hot August Nights was originally charged $19,152 dollars for bagging parking meters during its event. There are 152 meters that will be bagged at a cost of $18.00 per day. The costs include the meter bags themselves and the staff time to bag the meters. Even though people may think this is a new fee, it's actually not. The City recently did a review and is focused on equal enforcement of the fees for all promoters in order to create equity,” Landon Miller from the city’s communications team wrote back to Our Town Reno earlier in the day.
“However, HAN applied for and received a $20,000 in-kind/sponsorship grant from the City for this year's event. This in-kind grant covers things like staff time, equipment, park rental fees, and sometimes RPD staff. So yes, they were charged a $19,152 fee, but it was essentially waived,” he explained by email in more detail.
According to initial figures, holding the road cruise would have still cost organizers but about $7,000 less without the parade, with $88,147.01 for street closure equipment and staffing, $69,309.16 for Reno police staffing and $5,180.00 for the rental of ReTRac & City Plaza, minus the $20,000 grant.