Community Corner
Berkley City Council Approves CruiseFest, Budget
City officials also OK dozens of amendments to the budget and cable agreement.
City Council met Monday evening to discuss an array of issues concerning Berkley. A large portion of the meeting was spent appointing new members to various city committees, including Deputy Chief Bob North to the Woodward Dream Cruise committee.
Other topics, including Dream Cruise authorization and budget, as well as budget amendments were covered. Here’s a look some of the highlights from the meeting:
CruiseFest and Classic Car Parade
The Berkley CruiseFest and annual Classic Car Parade were approved by City Council for Aug. 17.
Find out what's happening in Huntington Woods-Berkleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Mark Coon, chair of the ad hoc CruiseFest committee, spoke to City Council about this year’s merchandise budget, too. The budget for official Dream Cruise merchandise is $32,000 and it will be purchased at wholesale.
Coon explained to council that it will need to sell 42 percent of merchandise to break even this year. He said he was also optimistic about sales this year, as they will accept debit and credit cards during the festivities. This addition, he explained, is an attempt to keep visitors buying official merchandise for Berkley’s event, rather than going to other booths for memorabilia.
Find out what's happening in Huntington Woods-Berkleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
CruiseFest merchandise will be sold starting Aug. 10.
Coon also updated council with parade details, including that there are now 180 cars registered for the parade, sponsorships are being worked on and registration will remain open until July 15.
Another new activity this year will be the inclusion of the .
More information can be found by emailing cruisefest@berkleymich.net.
Budget amendments
A list of 30 amendments for the 2011-12 budget came before council at Monday’s meeting.
Finance Director David Sabuda explained that 13 amendments were general fund amendments and 17 were from other funds. The changes, he said, were to incorporate $485,000 of new net revenues, including $70,000 in additional revenues from city traffic violations and fees.
Council approved the amendments.
Franchise agreement with WideOpenWest
City Council approved a cable franchise agreement between Berkley and WideOpenWest Michigan LLC.
The agreement, , runs 10 years.
City Manager Jane Bais-DiSessa said the agreement includes a government access channel.
