gaithersblog.net

From the City’s website:

2008 Independence Day Celebration Weekend

Staying in town this Fourth of July?  Join in some local fun as the City of Gaithersburg and 97.1 WASH-FM present a Big Bang Weekend Celebration Thursday, July 3 through Monday, July 7.  All concerts are free. 

The weekend kicks off with a children’s concert featuring the ever-popular Mr. Ray on Thursday, July 3 at 10:30 a.m. at the City Hall Concert Pavilion, 31 South Summit Avenue in Olde Towne Gaithersburg. Mr. Ray brings a unique, brand of cool, hip, positive entertainment for the entire family to enjoy.  This concert is also sponsored in part by www.tots2tweens.com.

The festivities continue on Friday with Gaithersburg’s Fourth of July Fireworks and Concert at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds, 16 Chestnut Street. Gates open at 5 p.m. Walk in at Chestnut or Dalamar Streets; Perry Parkway itself and the Perry Parkway entrance will be closed. No cars will be allowed in the Fairgrounds. WASH FM starts the night off at 6 p.m. with fun and games for the whole family, followed by a concert featuring Powerhouse at 7 p.m. A special City ceremony will take place at 8 p.m., with more concert to follow.  The City’s spectacular fireworks display begins at dusk. A variety of food will be sold at this event. Absolutely NO alcoholic beverages, glass containers, rollerblades, skates, bikes, pets, or fireworks of any kind will be permitted.  The rain date for the fireworks is Saturday, July 5.

Get whisked away to little latitudes on Saturday, July 5 when B2B, a Jimmy Buffett tribute band, performs at the City Hall Concert Pavilion at 7 p.m.  You’ll feel like you’re on a tropical island as the band plays Jimmy Buffett favorites that will sweep you away to paradise.  Note that if the July 4 fireworks are postponed until July 5, this concert will take place at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds.

The exciting spirit known as “Beatlemania” is alive again in The Return, the world’s most authentic Beatles tribute band.  Enjoy this amazingly energetic concert on Sunday, July 6 at 5 p.m. at the City Hall Concert Pavilion.  Note that this concert was originally scheduled for May 31 but was cancelled due to inclement weather that day. 

One more exciting concert rounds out Big Bang Weekend.  Girl Authority, a group of real girls with different personalities and interests, come together to sing, dance and put their own spin on girl power hits when they perform on Monday, July 7 at 10:30 a.m. at the City Hall Concert Pavilion.  This concert is sponsored in part by www.tots2tweens.com.

Click on the links below for more information or call 301-258-6350 or email parksrec@gaithersburgmd.gov.

• Big Band Weekend Events
• On Stage Summer Concert Series

Following the “Big Bang Weekend” link:

Big Bang Weekend - July 3 - 7

On Stage celebrates its 10th Anniversary

Free concerts begin at 10:30 a.m.
at the City Hall Concert Pavilion. Attendees are encouraged to bring a blanket, lawn chairs and a picnic.

A parking garage is located across the street from pavilion.

 

Thursday, July 3, 2008 - 10:30 a.m. * City Hall Concert Pavillion Mr. Ray Mr. Ray brings his brand of cool, hip, positive entertainment for the whole family to Gaithersburg. www.mrray.com
Friday, July 4, 2008 Independence Day Fireworks and Concert Montgomery County Fairgrounds Concert with Powerhouse - 7 p.m. Fireworks at Dusk Food available for sale Raindate — Fireworks and Concert by B2B at Fairgrounds Sat., July 5
Saturday, July 5, 2008 City Hall Concert Pavillion B2B — Jimmy Buffett Tribute Band If fireworks are postponed until July 5, this concert will take place at the Fairgrounds The main ingredient in any B2B performance is the same laid back, tropical attitude that Jimmy Buffett displays whenever he performs. So kick off your shoes and let us take you away to the little latitudes. www.b2bband.com
Sunday, July 6, 2008 - 5 p.m. City Hall Concert Pavillion The Return — The Beatles Tribute Band The exciting spirit known as “Beatlemania” is alive again in The Return — the world’s most authentic Beatles tribute band.  Music fans from every generation can experience the same thrill felt by those who saw the Beatles live in the ’60’s. www.thereturnonline.com            View a preview of The Return (use Windows Media Player)
Monday, July 7, 2008 - 10:30 a.m. * City Hall Concert Pavillion Girl Authority Girl Authority is a group of real girls with different personalities and interests coming together to sing, dance and put their own spin on girl power pop hits you know and love. www.girlauthority.com

*sponsored in part by www.tots2tweens.com

From the City’s website:

Big Bang Weekend Features Something for Everyone in Gaithersburg
Posted 6/6/2008

Staying in town this Fourth of July?  Join in some local fun as the City of Gaithersburg and 97.1 WASH-FM present a Big Bang Weekend Celebration Thursday, July 3 through Monday, July 7.  All concerts are free. 

The weekend kicks off with a children’s concert featuring the ever-popular Mr. Ray on Thursday, July 3 at 10:30 a.m. at the City Hall Concert Pavilion, 31 South Summit Avenue in Olde Towne Gaithersburg. Mr. Ray brings a unique, brand of cool, hip, positive entertainment for the entire family to enjoy.  This concert is also sponsored in part by www.tots2tweens.com.

The festivities continue on Friday with Gaithersburg’s Fourth of July Fireworks and Concert at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds, 16 Chestnut Street. Gates open at 5 p.m. Walk in at Chestnut or Dalamar Streets; Perry Parkway itself and the Perry Parkway entrance will be closed. No cars will be allowed in the Fairgrounds. WASH FM starts the night off at 6 p.m. with fun and games for the whole family, followed by a concert featuring Powerhouse at 7 p.m. A special City ceremony will take place at 8 p.m., with more concert to follow.  The City’s spectacular fireworks display begins at dusk. A variety of food will be sold at this event. Absolutely NO alcoholic beverages, glass containers, rollerblades, skates, bikes, pets, or fireworks of any kind will be permitted.  The rain date for the fireworks is Saturday, July 5.

Get whisked away to little latitudes on Saturday, July 5 when B2B, a Jimmy Buffett tribute band, performs at the City Hall Concert Pavilion at 7 p.m.  You’ll feel like you’re on a tropical island as the band plays Jimmy Buffett favorites that will sweep you away to paradise.  Note that if the July 4 fireworks are postponed until July 5, this concert will take place at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds.

The exciting spirit known as “Beatlemania” is alive again in The Return, the world’s most authentic Beatles tribute band.  Enjoy this amazingly energetic concert on Sunday, July 6 at 5 p.m. at the City Hall Concert Pavilion.  Note that this concert was originally scheduled for May 31 but was cancelled due to inclement weather that day. 

One more exciting concert rounds out Big Bang Weekend.  Girl Authority, a group of real girls with different personalities and interests, come together to sing, dance and put their own spin on girl power hits when they perform on Monday, July 7 at 10:30 a.m. at the City Hall Concert Pavilion.  This concert is sponsored in part by www.tots2tweens.com.

Click on the links below for more information or call 301-258-6350 or email parksrec@gaithersburgmd.gov.

• Big Band Weekend Events
  

• On Stage Summer Concert Series

While the story that the fairgrounds’ board is considering the sale of their Gaithersburg property is not new, Saturday’s Washington Post has a story by Lori Aratani which purports to give a bit more information on the issue. Unfortunately, as typical for the Post, the article just leaves you wondering what is really going on.

Proceeds from the potential sale of the 62-acre site could go into an endowment that would support the continuation of the fair, which drew a record 220,000 visitors last summer.

Admission to the fair last year was $7 for an adult, $3 for kids from 2 to 7, free under 2. However there are all manner of discounts and promotions available. For example, I think that 4H exhibitors and their families get in free, and there’s children’s and seniors’ days with free admission for some people. So say that on average, somewhere around half, or 110,000, of the visitors paid $7 to get in; that would be $770,000 in revenue just from admission. At the same time, there are additional charges for events such as the demolition derby and the tractor pull; these events can draw thousands of people at $7 to $12 per person. Also, parking is $5 per car, and the various vendors have to pay for their space. It is hard to believe that — assuming the 220,000 attendance figure is correct — annual fair revenues don’t at least begin to approach $1 million.

Martin Svrcek, executive director of the Montgomery County Agricultural Center, said the past two years were the best in fair history. With last year’s record crowd, the fair made about $50,000 profit. But that’s not enough to offset the cost of air conditioning or heating buildings and powering rides. Compounding the problem is that many of the original buildings have never been upgraded, Svrcek said.

The cost of running the fair has increased from $4,600 a day in 2002 to $5,300 a day last year, he said.

So now things seem to be screwy. First off, the $50,000 “profit” isn’t a profit if it doesn’t cover operating expenses. Second, the mention of powering rides raises the question of how the contract with the carnival vendor works. While admission to the carnival area is of course included in the fair admission, there is a separate charge for the rides, food, and games within the carnival. Doesn’t the carnival vendor have to give the fair a portion of their revenues? Is the fair saying that this share of revenues isn’t enough to provide power for the rides?

The figure cited as the “cost of running the fair” also makes no sense — the fair runs for nine days, and $5,300 per day thus comes out to $47,700. Given close to a million dollars in revenues, this seems a drop in the bucket, and in fact a tiny amount given the level of effort that must be entailed for running an operation serving tens of thousands of people per day. Perhaps what Mr Svrcek was saying was that the annual cost of running the fairgrounds is $5,300 per day; this would add up to close to $2 million annually, and sort of make sense. But then, they have all manner of other activities throughout the year at the fairgrounds, which also bring in revenues. As I said, the Post’s story just leaves you wondering what is really going on.

Update: Fortunately, the Fairgrounds (”Montgomery County Agricultural Center, Inc.”) is a 501(c)(3) Public Charity, and thus their income taxes (Form 990) are public. The latest filing available on Guidestar is for tax year 2006. In that year they reported total revenues of $2,417,713 and total expenses of $1,913,512. Net assets (including land and buildings) and fund balances at the end of the year were $3,323,140. Clearly this is not directly connected to the actual market value of their assets, as, according to property tax records, the assessed value of their land (two lots, tax accounts 09-00820328 and 09-00840840) alone is about $14.9 million.

I note that $1,913,512 divided by 365 is $5,242.50, which would then be the expenses per day to run the fairgrounds, thus matching my guess as to what the Post might have been trying to say. This figure includes the costs to run all the activities through the year, including the fair. I also note that their “profit”, or excess of revenues over expenses for the year 2006 amounted to about a half a million dollars.

Revenues broke down this way:

Fair revenue: $1,015,549 plus $5,744 “unrelated”.
Use of facilities: $977,457
Dinners and Meetings: $201,048
Interest on savings & temporary cash investments: $46,800
Direct public support: $51,619
Government contributions: $61,500
Other income: $57,996

Expenses broke down this way:

Program activities: $934,461
Management and general: $176,992
Fundraising: $7,375
Compensation of officers: $81,094
Salaries and wages: $256,719
Employee benefits & payroll taxes: $61,777
Equipment rental & maintenance: $153,724
Depreciation, depletion, etc.: $216,335
Other: $25,035

Anyway I think that this may shed a bit of light on the Fairgrounds’ financial situation, where the Post’s approach of throwing out a few random, poorly identified numbers just creates confusion.

From the City’s website:

City Considers Fall Planning Charrette for Montgomery County Fairgrounds Property
Posted 3/28/2008

Members of the Montgomery County Agricultural Center Board of Directors have approached the City of Gaithersburg about possible rezoning considerations for their 62-acre property bordered by Chestnut Street, Perry Parkway and North Frederick Avenue. This property has been privately owned by the Agricultural Center since 1949, and the Board is considering their options as they explore the possibility of relocating the fair elsewhere in Montgomery County.

The prime location and historical significance of this property calls for a broad, community-wide discussion of its potential use. City officials are recommending that City staff coordinate a planning charrette, to be held some time in the Fall of 2008. Used successfully throughout the City for past development opportunities such as the Kentlands and Crown Farm, charrettes, or “planning exercises,” bring together City officials and staff, key stakeholders, the regional community and design teams in a transparent process of discovery and problem-solving. While the Fairgrounds planning consultant has developed a preliminary concept plan that envisions a town center, City officials stress that the charrette will be an open planning exercise with no preconceived notions about the appropriate future of the property. The outcome of the charrette will be a proposed vision for the study area, which can then be incorporated into the City’s Master Plan.

For more information please contact Greg Ossont, Director of Planning and Code Administration, at 301-258-6330.

Also, see my previous posts on this issue. In addtion, this Gazette article by Patricia M. Murret has some interesting background, including a hint about where the fairgrounds might move:

While nothing is final, a possible site for a new fairgrounds has been identified: the 84-acre Linthicum farm located on West Old Baltimore Road in Boyds, Svrcek said.

The grain and livestock farm, near the former Comsat site, is flanked by Interstate 270 and the proposed Corridor Cities Transitway.

Gene Walker, president of the fair board, named the Linthicum farm as a possible new location for the fair during the March 18 meeting. Charlie Linthicum was an original signer of the agricultural center’s articles of incorporation in 1949.

The property has access to water, natural gas, electricity and sewer and plenty of room for parking; still, fair officials insist nothing is a done deal.

Update: Patricia M. Murret writes in the Gazette, Sale of fairground contemplated:

The grounds and buildings at 16 Chestnut Street, assessed at nearly $17 million in July, ‘‘is not for sale,” said Marty Svercek, the agricultural center’s president. ‘‘Our top choice is to stay where we are.”

However, the cost of maintaining the facility is growing as the need to upgrade the aging center is becoming more pressing, he said.

As you read the following, you should note that the fairgrounds property is divided up into two lots, both around 30 acres. The southernmost half is zoned I-1, “Light Industrial”. The northern half is zoned R-A, “Low Density Residential”. By the Gaithersburg City Code, “The R-A Zone is intended to provide primarily for low density residential areas and nonresidential, institutional uses and public use areas.” Permitted uses include farms. Zone I-1 permits a wide variety of uses, including offices, medical clinics, car repair shops, trucking terminals, bakeries, factories, churches and strip clubs. Given the course of recent development in Gaithersburg, I’m going to guess here that none of the currently-permitted uses — which do not include for example high-density residential or high-intensity retail — are what the Ag Center might have in mind for this site. More than likely they will pursue a rezoning to MXD; this would be consistent with their mention of the Master Plan process in the below.

From the Montgomery County Agricultural Center’s website:

PRESS RELEASE

MONTGOMERY COUNTY AGRICULTURAL CENTER, INC.

The Montgomery County Agricultural Center Inc., a non-profit organization as owner of the Montgomery County Fairgrounds, will be working with the City of Gaithersburg Planning Department to adopt a new Master Plan for the area where the fairgrounds are located. This procedure will follow the normal process of all Master Plans conducted by the City of Gaithersburg, including Charettes and public hearings so that the community and property owner can play an instrumental part, along with the City Planners, in devising a land use plan for the 62 acre tract on the edge of Olde Towne Gaithersburg. The Montgomery County Agricultural Center Board of Directors anticipates the planning process will take several years and depending upon the results of the Master Plan process, they will evaluate any economic opportunities presented to them to potentially relocate the fairgrounds to another property in Montgomery County.

The Montgomery County Agricultural Center Inc, is not a part of the Montgomery County Government. The Montgomery County Agricultural Center Inc. has been the private owner of the fair grounds property since 1949. The property has been the site of the annual Montgomery County Fair since that year.

It is the mission of the Montgomery County Agricultural Center, Inc., to promote improved agriculture and farming, agricultural education and to support 4-H and FFA Clubs throughout the county. That mission will continue to be the main focus of the Montgomery County Agricultural Center now and in the future.

Any inquiries regarding the plans of the Montgomery County Agricultural Center Inc, should be addressed to Martin E. Svrcek, Executive Director, 16 Chestnut Street, Gaithersburg, MD 20877, or go to their website, www.mcagfair.com.

In case anyone is interested, or just gets to wondering why, in a couple of weeks, there’ll be an extraordinary number of policemen and horses in Gaithersburg, the 2007 North American Police Equestrian Championships will be held Saturday and Sunday, September 22 and 23, at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds. I see no indication on their website one way or another as to whether the event is open to the public, although I don’t know why it wouldn’t be. I’ll write to the organizers to try to find out for sure.

Update: I received a response from the competition organizers, and the good news is that admission is free to the public:

Yes It is FREE to the public. I need to put that on the website.

There are 2 days of competition. Sat is Equitation and Sunday is the Obstacle Course which is the most exciting and interesting of the two days.

Thanks for posting!

It appears that if you (or your kids) love horses, this could be a great way to spend a few hours on that weekend.

I noticed in this week’s myGaithersburg email, the item up at the top:

NOTICE: A special event permit has been issued for a private event at the Montgomery County Agricultural Center on Saturday, Sept. 30. The event will include fireworks starting at 8 p.m. A City fire marshal will be onsite during the display.

Checking with the Fairgounds website, I find they’re listing two events for tomorrow night. One is the City of Gaithersburg Crab Feast & Karaoke event (see the City’s announcement for more information), while the other is Diwali Mela 2006: Festival of Lights (Deepavali), sponsered by the Association of United Hindu & Jain Temples of Metropolitan Washington, DC. It is in fact the latter which mentions fireworks, although I’m guessing you’ll be able to see them from either event. The Hindu festival will be on the Perry Parkway end, while the Crabs & Karaoke will be at the Chestnut Street end.

The City’s description of the Crab Feast says:

The entire community is invited to enjoy crabs and BBQ as the City of Gaithersburg hosts its Crab Feast & Karaoke Night on Saturday, September 30 at the Montgomery County Agricultural Center, 16 Chestnut Street in Gaithersburg.

Doors will open at 5:30 p.m., and the buffet will be available at 6 p.m. Catered by Red Hot & Blue, the buffet features pulled pork and chicken, baked beans, potato salad, and desserts. Crabs will be served from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Music and Karaoke will run from 6 to 10 p.m.

Admission is $35 for City of Gaithersburg residents and $39 for nonresidents. Children 10 and under will be admitted for half price. Groups of 10 or more will receive a discount of $2 per ticket. Beverages will be available for an additional fee. Ticket sales are limited, so early purchase is recommended. Tickets are available now and can be purchased at the Activity Center at Bohrer Park, 506 South Frederick Avenue. For more information please contact 301-258-6350 or parksrec@gaithersburgmd.gov.

While the Hindu Festival’s description says:

Association of United Hindu and Jain Temples of Washington Metro Area
invites you to celebrate the Festival of Lights (Deepavali)

Saturday, September 30, 2006

12:00 Noon - 10:00 PM

Free Admission, Free Parking
Shree Ganesha & Devi Lakshmi Pooja
Grand Cultural Program and Spectacular Fireworks
Gala Festival, Featuring Indian Food, Shops for Fashion Clothing and Jewelry, Audio/Video Cassettes, Cosmetics,
Books and Children’s Entertainment at
Montgomery County Agricultural Center (Fairgrounds)
16 Chestnut Street, Gaithersburg, MD 20877 (301) 926-3100

Indian food or Crabs? That’s a tough choice. Karaoke, I could do without. Maybe the best plan is lunch at the Hindu festival, dinner at the Crab Feast, and then back to the Hindu festival for the best seats for the fireworks…

Of course, I doubt many of the Jains will be using this strategy…