Mount Olive Commissioner Delreese Simmons, right, questions why the town provides $5,000 annually to the Mount Olive Area Chamber of Commerce while also footing some costs associated with the N.C. Pickle Festival during the board’s Tuesday, April 16, initial budget planning session. Mayor Jerome Newton, second from right, also wanted to know if the town could share in the revenues generated through the festival. Commissioner Barbara Kornegay, left, said that instead of guessing, the board needed to talk to Chamber and festival officials to get information about the event. Also pictured is Commissioner Vicky Darden. Board members said they also want information about the public transportation system the town participates in. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
With just over a week remaining before the 38th annual N.C. Pickle Festival, some Mount Olive Town Board members are questioning why the town should fund the Mount Olive Area Chamber of Commerce to the tune of $5,000 annually and foot some of the cost associated with putting on the festival without reaping any of the festival revenue.
Questions were raised as well as to whether or not the town is realizing any benefit from the $35,000 budgeted annually for public transportation through the Goldsboro-Wayne Transportation Authority (Gateway).
Coordinated by the North Carolina Pickle Festival, Inc. in partnership with the Chamber, the award-winning festival that brings tens of thousands of people to downtown Mount Olive, will be held from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, April 26, and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 27.
More than 30 minutes of the board’s initial two-and-a-half-hour budget planning session Tuesday, April 16, was spent questioning those two funding streams.
Commissioner Delreese Simmons led the questioning as to why the town should give $5,000 annually to the Chamber.
On several occasions during the discussion Simmons asserted that the festival shuts down businesses in the downtown area so they cannot operate.
“How much do they charge for each one of those (festival vendor) spots,” he said. “I want to know what they bring in, instead of us keep giving them (Chamber) money.”
Commissioner Danny Keel noted that the festival is expanding its footprint this year.
“And people downtown complain because they have to shut down so they can have a festival that day,” Simmons continued. “So it ain’t fair for these people who have businesses to have to shut down their doors so this Pickle Festival can operate.”
Commissioner Tommy Brown refuted Simmons’ assertions.
“The businesses don’t shut down — they stay open and make revenue,” he said.
Everybody benefits when people come to town for a big event like the Pickle Festival or even graduation at the University of Mount Olive, Mayor Pro-tem Barbara Kornegay added.
“These people just don’t come here and sit on a chair and watch graduation or something,” she said. “They spend money.”
However, Simmons continued to say the businesses shut down.
Keel asked if the town had given the Chamber $5,000 for the past several years. But before he could be answered, Simmons wanted to know who pays town employees to clean up downtown following the festival.
The town pays for it and each year the town prepares a report, said Jamie Butler, the town’s finance director. Obviously, she said, the town does not know what the expenses will be this year.
“I work with department heads and tell them that anything that is charged to the Pickle Festival, of course we have to pay, to include hours worked, extra trash bags, any supplies or anything, to let me know so we can get that report and give it to (Town Manager) Jammie (Royall),” Butler explained.
So, the town pays for all of that, Simmons asked.
Butler said it was true.
Simmons also questioned time spent putting up the festival banners, wiring and spreading mulch.
Kornegay said the Chamber and N.C. Pickle Festival Foundation work together on the festival.
In response to questioning by Kornegay, Butler said last year’s report of town expenditures related to the festival was $13,000 for overtime for employees and for supplies.
Simmons continued to ask about expenses related to putting down mulch, but Kornegay said the town does that on a regular basis anyway.
However, Simmons continued that it was being put down for the festival and not the town.
If the town wants more information, it can ask Chamber President Julie Beck, Kornegay added.
Mayor Jerome Newton wanted to know if there was a mutual agreement, contract or gentleman’s type thing between the town and Chamber.
Royall said he thought it started with the town, Mt. Olive Pickle Co. and the Chamber, but added that he does not know how it was first set up when it started.
“If it is a partnership of the three, how much does this partner (town) get,” Newton asked.
The festival foundation was set up to help fund a lot of those things, and as such it may actually be that it could fund more things, Kornegay said.
“And if we feel like we are paying too much, or if we are having to spend too much, then it’s time for us to say is there anyway the town could get some relief or waiver from some of the expenses we are having to do,” Kornegay said. “We certainly have fewer people, and we are not able to do things like we used to anyway. The festival is a whole lot bigger than it used to be.”
That could a conversation between Royall, Beck and festival Cco-chair Lynn Williams, Kornegay added.
Simmons suggested taking up sales tax generated by the festival.
Kornegay reminded him that the sales tax is collected by the state and goes to the county before the town gets its share. The festival does not get that sales tax, Butler added.
The festival has grown and is probably very profitable, Kornegay said.
“But we need to get the facts and not just sit here and guess what they are doing,” she said.
“My only question and concern is not so much the facts per se, just is there anyway we can get some revenue from it,” Newton said.
Public transportation
During the discussion about public transportation, Keel said he sees the Gateway vehicles a lot and asked if they were used a lot.
Brown said the vehicles have several stops including Food Lion and Piggy Wiggly.
Keel also wanted to know how long the town has been contributing to the system. Kornegay responded there are records going back to 2021.
Kornegay added that she thinks the amount started at $40,000, but was lowered to $35,000 following a route reduction.
“I don’t see that bus that much down there,” Simmons said.
It goes all around town, Kornegay said.
“It does not,” Simmons countered. “It might go, but don’t down there.”
Simmons said the bus was supposed to be in an area at 7 a.m., but he had parked there one day and waited. The bus did not show up, he said.
The bus rides around, but nobody gets on, Simmons added.
Simmons said the bus is supposed to stop on Church Street, but never does.
However, minutes later when a map of the bus route was displayed on a TV, Simmons pointed to an area outside the route and said that was the area he had been referring to.
Kornegay said perhaps the town should look at changing the route some.
Royall pointed out that there might be some confusion between the Gateway vehicles and the ones dispatched to the area by the county’s social services department for its clients.
Kornegay said if the board has any questions, it needs to contact Gateway for an update.
Keel said he would like to know if the bus is utilized or not, and Newton suggested that the people who use the system be surveyed.
“So what I am hearing is that possibly for the next budget session, I know it will be after April, after the festival is over, but you guys want more information from Julie,” Butler said.
That is correct the board members responded.
“Also on that bus service, too,” Keel added.
