By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
Staff Writer
Ortonville — The Ortonville village council and village manager Ryan Madis are looking to revamp the current special event permit for the village. The issue has been brought up the last few meetings, including the Monday night gathering when council member Melanie Nivelt motioned to add special event permits to the agenda.
“My concern was with all of these events the council is approving, the fact that we don’t have an application that charges appropriate fees for police barricades, road closures, etc., that charges those fees to the requester of said event,” she said.
Manager Madis said this has been on his list of projects to tackle for a while, and is hoping to get it done this year.
“We discussed that the form is inadequate,” said Madis. “After July and the current busy season we’re in, I will put together a crew to figure out our special event permit and process.”
Madis plans to meet with Brandon Fire Chief Dave Kwapis, Lt. Glover of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office Brandon substation, Ortonville Downtown Development Authority director Matt Jenkins, Ortonville DPW Director Bob Hauxwell and Brandon Township Supervisor Jayson Rumball to talk through the process and what approvals each entity needs for a special event.
“There’s no pertinent information on the forms right now,” he said. “We need more detail. Set up and tear down times, vendor opening and closing times vs. public opening and closing times, the ability to have special needs such as vendor parking. The big change that I think we’re going to see is a simple form for events that don’t close streets, and additional forms or more pages for parades or road closures.”
The issue has been brought up by council previously, as the current forms don’t offer detailed information about the planned events, leaving the council with questions and concerns about the events they approve. There is also a cost concern, as there is currently no fee associated with a special event permit, even those that require police or DPW presence.
“We both agree that our special event permit is lacking in many, many ways,” said Village President Ken Quisenberry. “So our permit form changes, and then everyone that’s going to apply for a permit from this village complies with the same application procedure, it will at least give us more information before we approve it.”
Anyone with ideas for event permits can send them to Madis at villagemanager@ortonvillevillage.com.