Somebody needs to take the reins of this year’s Lone Ranger Festival and the Oxford Downtown Development Authority (DDA) suggested Lisa Renaud for the job.
‘We are behind the eight ball (in terms of planning this event),? said village President Sue Bossardet, who serves on the DDA board. ‘If you want to have an event this year, then we need to do this.?
Last week, the DDA board voted 7-1 to recommend the village council enter into an agreement with Renaud, who had a brief stint last year as the executive director for the Oxford Area Chamber of Commerce, to coordinate and raise funds for the Lone Ranger Festival, scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 1.
Council is expected to vote on the agreement at its next regular meeting, which is 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 14.
The proposed agreement calls for Renaud, a resident of Addison Township, to be paid $4,000 for her services, plus a 20 percent commission ‘on sponsorships solicited directly? by her.
She would be an independent contractor, not an employee of either the village or DDA.
Renaud would not be paid using either DDA or village funds. It was specifically stated at the DDA meeting she would be compensated using privately donated funds in the Lone Ranger account managed by the village.
Based on figures provided by village Manager Joe Young, the Lone Ranger account has a current balance of $14,020.
Of this, $7,428 is restricted for the purpose of someday building a statue honoring the fictional masked lawman and Brace Beemer, the late Oxford resident who was the radio voice of the Lone Ranger from 1941-54.
The rest of the money, a total of $6,592, is considered unrestricted, meaning it can be used to help fund the festival, which includes a lengthy parade along M-24.
Not included in this amount are commitments from Oxford Bank and Genisys Credit Union to contribute $2,500 and $1,500, respectively, to this year’s event, according to Young.
Bossardet said Renaud has ‘a lot of experience? when it comes to fund-raising and organizing events.
Renaud spent 15-plus years involved in event planning, marketing and commercial leasing for the luxury home furnishing market. She worked for the Michigan Design Center in Troy and served as a liaison between nonprofit organizations and the design community.
A committee has been meeting and planning the Lone Ranger Festival, but Bossardet said there needs to be a single individual coordinating everything, pulling everybody together and making sure everybody’s doing what they’re supposed to be doing.
According to Bossardet, someone has to be hired for this job because there are no volunteers willing to take it on.
‘To be honest, nobody really wants to do it,? she said. ‘Nobody has the time to do it.?
DDA board member Rod Charles, who helped found the Lone Ranger event in 2013, opposed hiring someone and voted against it. He suggested Bossardet take on the coordinator role.
‘You do it, Sue,? he said. ‘You’re always telling everybody else to do something. You never do anything yourself.?
But Charles was the lone voice of opposition on the DDA board. Everyone else seemed to favor hiring Renaud.
‘I think this makes more sense than anything,? said DDA board member Ed Hunwick.
DDA board member Jerry Cremin supported the idea of having someone ‘driving the bus? for this event.
Bossardet warned that because the Lone Ranger Festival is now a little more than four months away and there’s still lots of planning to do, officials ‘need to be realistic? about the outcome.
‘I don’t think that it’s going to be as big an event this year as maybe it could have been because we simply do not have the time to do all this,? she told the DDA board. ‘It is not going to be the size that we may want. I think next year we stand a better chance of it. But this year, I think that we’ve just got to work with what we’ve got in the time we’ve got.?
There was some discussion about the possibility of cancelling the festival this year and focusing efforts on restarting it next year, but no support for that idea was expressed.
Cremin believes festival organizers should stay positive, promote the event and ‘swing for the fence? this year.