08 - 903 Conceret Series - Amendment to the Agreement with TxDOT

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Item No. 8 Memorandum TO: Mayor, Mayor Pro -Tem and City Council Grayson Path, City Manager FROM: Andrew Mack, AICP Director Planning & Community Development SUBJECT: 903 Concert Series Festival Event — 1 -Year Agreement with TX DOT for Closure of Downtown Square on Thursday Evenings 6/23, 6/30 & 7/21/2022 MTG. DATE: July 11, 2022 BACKGROUND At its meeting held on 6/13/22, City Council approved a one-year Agreement with TX DOT for Closure of the Downtown Square on Thursday evenings 6/23, 6/30 & 7/21, 7/28 all in 2022. At the first scheduled event on June 23`d a lightning strike knocked out the sound board and the event was postponed. It was a good first dry run at the event and it was followed by a very successful event on June 30th with an estimated 1200-1300 in attendance and with ideal outdoor concert weather. The rescheduled date now for the Mike Ryan performance is July 28th. This will be the fourth date in the 2022 schedule for the 903 Sunsets Concert series. Accordingly, the TX DOT agreement requires an amendment adding the fourth date. We learned a good deal in the process of conducting these two events, which occupies the entire square for the evening. We will be implementing further operational measures to continue to make this event the premier downtown music event in all of Northeast Texas, and to help promote Paris as an officially designated APA -TX "Great Places in Texas" City. The event will stimulate the economy by bringing in approximately 1,000-3,000 people to downtown, depending upon the performers. The event will be brought back annually depending upon the success for the first year. It is an exciting event for the City of Paris and City and Chamber Officials are highly optimistic for the positive impact this community cultural event will create for our community. A big hit now with the new park lighting! !! The street closures for the whole square are basically similar to what the City does for the annual Pumpkin Festival. The City Traffic Department will assist with setting up of barricades for the street and parking spaces. The event volunteers now plan to execute the safe re -opening of traffic for the square in a logical safe manner. As a result, the request by Visit Paris is for the City to re -approve a resolution for the event street closure to authorize the process of the agreement approval with TX DOT now for the 4 event dates with a revised one year agreement with TX DOT for street closures as per the Traffic Control Plan. When the series returns in 2023, a new agreement will be required with the new dates for event. RECOMMENDATION Approve a new resolution re -authorizing a one year agreement for street closure with TxDOT for 903 Concert Series Festival Event dates of June 23 & 30 and July 21 & 28.