|
- Mona City residents voice opposition to proposed music event in west Mona
|
NO CONCERT • Residents of Mona who came to council meeting last Tuesday voiced their concerns and opposition to an outside music event proposed for July 18.
By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Mona residents think there will be intense trouble in Mona City if the county commission allows a music event on land just west of the city.
Jeremy Franklin and Jason Young met with Mona City council members, the sheriff and two deputies and more than 50 residents of the community and addressed the first agenda item at city council meeting on Tuesday. The topic of discussion was a plan to hold the music event, "Electric Valley 2015," on 93-acres of privately-owned, contracted land belonging to Dana Young, a family member of Jason Young.
At the end of the discussion, when Mayor Greg Newton called for a hand vote of those in attendance, not one citizen voted in favor of recommending the music festival to the county commission for a mass gathering permit.
"It looks like the vote is unanimous against the proposal," said Newton.
Mona Council meeting was moved from Mona City Hall to Mona Elementary School because the city council expected a large crowd. They were not disappointed.
Franklin presented a PowerPoint featuring a map, an example of the type of music that will be played and information promoting the event.
"There will be no alcohol served," said Franklin.
The pair had first proposed selling alcohol at the event but, after discussion with the county commission, had determined to drop that item from the venue.
The minimum age has also been lowered, he said, to age 16.
Franklin and Young invited all Mona residents to attend the music festival free of charge.
In spite of the modification in plans, the residents of Mona were not satisfied that the safety of the residents of their community could be adequately provided.
"Had you told me, when we sat across the table from each other that you were planning a rave party, I would have pushed the paper back across the table and told you, 'See you later,'" said Newton.
Newton said he had no intention of allowing Mona to become the next rave party site for the state.
Bill Mills, a former mayor, said that the city has a population of 1,500 and the rave party is expected to be between 850 to 1,500 people.
The residents of the community lived there, he said, because it was a quiet and peaceful place. They did not want to set a precedence as a place where raves were held.
"I just don't see where it can be a plus," he said.
Young said, however, that the city already had huge events because of Young Living Farm that had conventions that 20,000 people attended and had hosted two big-name concerts that attracted 30,000 people each. Those attractions brought an international audience.
In addition, he said, the city's own Pioneer Day celebration brought people from all over—even Colorado.
"I am a businessman," said Dan Woodland, resident.
He said that, when he goes to a community and meets before a group of people like the one at the elementary school and they tell him that they don't want what he is promoting, he doesn't do it.
"At that point in time, you need to step back and say, 'OK we need to find a new place.' Have that respect for the community and for the individuals who live here."
The land where the music event is planned is located between the Mona power plant the and mink farm at the base of the west foothills.
The pair are proposing to hold a 24-hour music party or a rave. A rave is a large party featuring performances by disc jockeys (DJs) and occasionally live performers playing electronic music, particularly electronic dance music (EDM).
"So what happens when you turn them loose?" asked Lynn Ingram, city planning commission chairman. "So you have a bunch of people that haven't slept for 24-hours, so now you are just turning them loose on the freeways and up through our town. There are some concerns there."
Several at the meeting spoke out that a rave just fostered criminal activity. Given the demographics of age of the attenders, there might be rapes and the resultant costs of police, jail and court expenses. Who would be stuck covering all of those expenses?
There was no way to prevent misuse, said Franklin, but they would have security that they had hired to cover the event and those people were state certified. In addition, they said, they would have county law enforcement and would have a
One person texted during the proceedings that he wanted insurance numbers, the names of people who would work there and stated that he would enter a lawsuit to keep the event away. This was on his adjacent property and he is a large landowner.
"Is this a legislative or administrative decision for the county commission?" asked Jeff Hearty, council member.
"If the county wants to make a decision on this, the arguments have to be evidence based," he said.
The decision has to be based on roads and on public safety.
Several people expressed concerns about the nearness of the power plant and the closeness to the drought covered hills nearby.
People would die if a fire got out of hand. There were only two routes into the proposed music event. One was through Goshen Canyon and the other was through Mona City along Main Street and then 200 West.
The city does have a noise ordinance. Also the county has a decibel ordinance.
Young said that they would be allowed 60 or 70 decibels but were planning on being below that.
"At the park we were at last year, probably three to four times the length of this gymnasium," said Franklin, "at 50 feet from stage we were pushing about 98 to a 110 decibels."
The nearest home would be 2,000 feet away and would not feel a bounce on a wall or vibration on the floor.
Noel Lance said he had looked on the website for the rave and found the advertising there which said that attendees could go wild. He also didn't think it possible that the promoters could guarantee that there would be no alcohol at the party. He suggested they go out in the desert where there would be no one near by.
Jim Wordsman asked if there would be searches on entry.
He also said that the event was planned for the hottest day of the year. There would be a good chance that there would be medical problems and the EMTs locally were volunteer. They would not be able to respond as quickly as the clock-round crews of Provo.
Franklin said they were contracting for EMT service.
Wordsman said that the men should be paying for the county law enforcement and for the county EMTs. They should take it out of their budget to pay for the service they were going to require.
The event was already advertised on the internet and people all around the country can buy tickets. What would be done if the 2,000 people anticipated turned into 10,000 that show up?
"We put on cap," said Franklin. "There are no more tickets. We ordered 2,000 tickets."
"On your Facebook page, you guys invited 9,000 people," said Molli Graham, council member.
"Everybody is going to invite their friends on Facebook, but a lot less than that bought tickets," Franklin. "The tickets they sell to their friends on the street come from the same vendor. There are a lot less tickets actually sold."
Brett Ostler, county fire marshall, had signed off on it the fire plan, said Young.
Some wanted to know what the promoters would do when more showed up than they planned for. An 18-years-old could sneak down through those mountains and the promoters couldn't do one thing about it.
Mike Stringer, a former council member said: "I have one thing to say to you, you should have been in the fertilizer business instead of in entertainment." All county commissioners were in attendance.
|
