By Miles Layton

PLYMOUTH — A contentious debate over the National Bear Festival dominated Monday’s Plymouth Town Council meeting, with council members voting to allocate $7,000 in promotional funds to the annual event despite Mayor Crystal Davis’s opposition and calls for financial transparency from several members.

For more Plymouth Town Council news, see the next edition of the Roanoke Beacon.

Council member Jerry Rhodes introduced the motion, arguing that the Bear Festival delivers meaningful economic and cultural benefits to the town and that Plymouth should follow the lead of other communities that financially back their signature events.

“I think this is a good event. I think that it does help Plymouth in many, many ways,” Rhodes said. “I feel like our township should partner with the festival folks and help in any way we can to make this festival one of the premier events — as it already is — in our part of the state.”

Rhodes pointed to Cherokee County as a model, noting that the county board of commissioners and the Town of Columbus together contribute approximately $15,000 to support their annual fall festivals. Council member John Shelton seconded the motion.

But the proposal quickly drew pushback. Council member Kim Williams said she had no fundamental objection to supporting the festival, but insisted the town needed documentation of what it contributes and what it receives in return.

“I need to see paperwork,” Williams said. “We still haven’t seen any paperwork on what is spent, what is not spent, how much we spent. All the other towns that I’ve looked into — even when I went down to Main Street — they all said they received a list on what the fair brought in and what the town received back from it. We don’t have that.”

Council member Donsenia Teel pushed back against the idea that the town gets nothing from the festival, arguing it already contributes significantly through in-kind services.

“What we contribute is our police officers and our maintenance men. This is money. These people are paid to be out there,” said Teel, who was present at the meeting via Zoom, but could not vote because she was not there in person. “We are contributing to the Bear Festival, but we are not getting any kind of returns. Now if you look back at the boat races we used to have, the town used to get a return. But with the Bear Festival, we get nothing.”

Teel noted the timing was particularly difficult, saying the town is “preparing to raise taxes and water bills because we can’t meet next year’s budget.”

Saying the quiet part out loud, that statement should give citizens a moment of zen pause — grab your wallets.

Town Manager Joanne Floyd offered some figures, saying she had calculated that public works and police department time over the last three years totaled approximately $3,700, based on pulled time sheets. She noted that in some years, police worked their normal shifts during the festival with no overtime, and that the sheriff’s department — paid by the county — and volunteer EMTs were not included in that figure.

Mayor Davis, who had made a detailed presentation opposing the funding at the prior month’s meeting (see story here), challenged the accuracy of some figures cited during the discussion and argued that the festival has never established a formal partnership with the town.

“What happens is the festival takes care of itself, and even with our in-kind gift, we still don’t have a partnership where the town gains and they gain as well,” she said. “There has not been a partnership — ever.”

Davis also raised a broader question about equity, noting that Plymouth has other upcoming events, including a Juneteenth festival. “What’s good for one is going to have to be good for all,” she said. “If you’re going to give that money to that festival, are we going to do the same for the other festivals coming up that same month?” — Juneteenth.

Rhodes said the town should simply request financial reporting going forward and that demanding it retroactively, with the festival weeks away, was not realistic. “I have no problem with going to this group and saying, before we give you any additional funds after this year, we want a report of expenses and revenues that you have realized,” he said. “To ask for it in advance — I don’t think that’s possible, and I don’t think it’s reasonable.”

Council member Williams ultimately voted against the motion, and the measure passed 3-2.

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Council Votes to Put ‘Plymouth’ Banners on Light Poles

In a separate but related discussion, council members approved spending $3,000 from the promotional fund to purchase street banners bearing the word “Plymouth” spelled vertically in white letters on a blue background.

Public Works Director Mike Wright presented options for the banners, noting that the town’s previous banners — large dark navy panels with a lighthouse design running from Adams Street to Monroe and down Washington Street — had either dry rotted off poles or been knocked down repeatedly by tractor-trailers. He said approximately 60 banners would be needed to cover the full route, with each banner running roughly $37 and bracket hardware adding about $60 per set, putting the cost at roughly $100 per installation.

Williams argued for simplicity over elaborate design. “I’m not even saying with the lighthouse or anything — just a blue banner with the word Plymouth. That’s it in white. Simple.”

Council member Shelton made the motion for a $3,000 allocation, which Williams seconded. The vote was unanimous. The banners were also confirmed to be compatible with mounting hardware planned for the new streetscape project, meaning the town would not need to purchase brackets twice.

If you want to know why the council chose this style of flag over, say, a Colonial-era flag, see this story.

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Board of Adjustments and Bears

In other business, the council moved to direct the town manager to draft an ordinance amendment combining the Board of Adjustments with the Planning Board as a single entity. The Board of Adjustments currently has only two members — down from a fuller roster that shrank after a council member had to resign from the board upon taking elected office and another member simply resigned.

Town Manager Floyd said she believes combining the boards makes sense and that the Planning Board has openings for alternates. The applicant who had been considered for the Board of Adjustments, Yan Weiner, was invited to apply to the Planning Board instead.

Finally, bears… long-story-short — Mayor Davis objected to putting the decorative bears back, even as the Bear Festival approaches. Poor bears, stuck in that closet — they won’t get their moment in the sun.

A motion by Shelton to return the bears — which had been removed from the roof of Town Hall and its lobby under a prior council vote — was rescinded after the mayor pointed out the removal may have been passed as a permanent motion under Robert’s Rules of Order, which would prevent reversal without legal review. Shelton then made a substitute motion that any bears or other items owned by private citizens be returned to their owners, a measure that passed after the attorney present said she would need to review the original meeting minutes before advising further.

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