City Council to Consider Extending Moratorium on Events in Stillwater ... Until Further Notice

The Stillwater City Council will vote on a resolution Tuesday night to extend the until further notice.

The resolution would extend the moratorium the council enacted in March on new community-wide events until the new City Council is sworn in and the city gets feedback from event survey that will be sent to residents next week.

The moratorium came about in the midst of a felony theft investigation by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office into Lumberjack Days organizer Dave Eckberg—and would have expired at the end of the year.

The moratorium will not apply to “periodic gatherings and lesser events” or the Spring and Fall Art Fairs, Summer Tuesdays, Harvest Fest, Cruisin’ on the Croix Car Show and the Nature Valley Grand Prix Stillwater Criterium Bike Race.

Event coordinators have approached the city wanting to apply for parades and events next year, Stillwater Mayor Ken Harycki said, and “we don’t want to waste staff time reviewing applications the City Council has no intention of considering at this time.”

In July, the Stillwater City Council to gain feedback on what a future summer festival in Stillwater should look like.

A random, 2,000-sample survey will be sent to homes, business and property owners in Stillwater within the next couple of weeks.

Residents selected for the survey should receive a letter in the mail this week, followed by the actual event survey and then a follow-up reminder to complete and return it.

The city expects to have the results of the survey by mid- to late-January, Harycki said.

So does that leave room for a large-scale event in Stillwater next summer?

“It would be tight,” Harycki said, “but of course that all depends on what the results of the survey say about the size, scope and what residents want an event to look like, if there is one.”