|
|
The Florida Times-Union
June 2, 2007
Amphitheater
use is topic of county talks
By CHRISTINA ABEL, After about six months of figuring out how to manage the refurbished St.
Augustine Amphitheater, St. Johns County officials are scheduled to talk with
nonprofit groups about their use of the site.
Since September, when talks about the amphitheater management began, one of
the biggest questions from those groups is how often they'll be able to use the
amphitheater and how much it will cost them. Some of those groups used the
amphitheater grounds free in the past.
In September, the county chose a private company, Signature Sports and
Entertainment of Ponte Vedra Beach, to run the amphitheater.
At that point, cultural arts and nonprofit groups said they were concerned
about Signature's pricing structure for their events.
Some said they were told it would cost nonprofits about $4,000 to rent the
facility.
"They're pricing everybody out of the market," Phil McDaniel, president of
the St. Johns Cultural Council, said in October.
In March, under pressure from those groups, the county decided to scrap the
contract negotiations with Signature and use county employees to manage the
amphitheater. With that decision, some of the nonprofit officials' fears were
abated because the county determined running the complex with its own employees
would cost less than hiring an outside management firm.
In addition, the county's main concern is to make the amphitheater profitable
enough to pay for the renovations, while Signature wanted to make a profit.
At two meetings on Tuesday, county staff and amphitheater employees will talk
about what decisions they've made since the commission put them in charge of
running the amphitheater.
McDaniels said he believes the groups will get better pricing with county
management because, if they disagree with the cost, they can take the problem to
their elected county commissioners.
Troy Blevins, the county's director of parks and recreation, said the fees
for nonprofits haven't been established and he's hoping to work with those
groups to determine what is equitable.
"Some fees are necessary," Blevins said. "We want input and participation in
determining some of the fees."
Blevins said managers could use sliding fees that would be determined based
on the size of the event and the number of expected participants.
Although the amphitheater won't officially open until August with a St. Johns
County Chamber of Commerce mixer event, Blevins said now is the time to work out
some of these details because one meeting won't be enough to cover all of the
issues.
"We really hope to open a dialogue with this first meeting," Blevins said.
Tommy Bledsoe, the amphitheater's manager, said that though a few events have
already been held at the amphitheater, such as the Gamble Rogers Folk Festival,
now is the time to "step back and handle some issues."
Besides determining a pricing structure for the nonprofits, Bledsoe said they
need to finish some of the last construction elements, install the lighting and
sound systems and figure out how they are going to handle concessions.
The meetings will be at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. at the county's parks and
recreation operations building at 2175 Mizell Road in St. Augustine.
christina.abel@jacksonville.com, (904) 249-4947, ext. 6319
Shorelines staff writer
--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------
This story can be found on Jacksonville.com at http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/060207/nep_174059190.shtml.
