Someone step up

Thursday, January 21, 2010

The Merrimack Rotary Club has decided that because of a $12,000 cut to the amount of money the town provides for the annual July 4 celebration, it won’t be able to put on the parade, midway and fireworks this year.

Well, what can one say? We certainly understand the Rotary’s point – they believe they need a certain amount of money to do the job properly, and without $12,000 of the town’s usual $36,000, they just can’t do it – at least not the way they want to.

But as disappointing as it will be to have nothing in Merrimack on July 4, especially with a state election in November – July 4 activities generally draw politicians like Oklahoma drew dust during the Depression – we have to understand the position of the Town Council, too.

As our Karen Lovett reported, Town Council Chairman Tom Mahon said, “Like everyone else, we’re looking at some significant revenue issues and trying to balance the fundamental things that governments do … against things like patriotic events and recreational activities.”

He has a point. Public safety, health and infrastructure, which were mentioned by Mahon, have to come first. Without them, we don’t have much of a town.

But a town without a July 4 celebration is sad, indeed, so something has to be done.

Merrimack is home to a lot of businesses, and many of the people who run or work for those businesses are members of Rotary. We know that they, like the town, are having economic issues, but maybe they can jump in and help out.

How would this be for a compromise: The town restores $2,000 of its proposed $12,000 cut and Rotary, with the help of its members, works like the dickens to raise the remaining $10,000 with, say, a deadline of May 1, which would give the organization enough time, we think, to either say yes or no to the celebration.

If they raise the money by May 1, it’s on; if they don’t, well, maybe it’s off, maybe Rotary can look at the funding it does have and do something a little smaller.

Let’s not pull the plug on the celebration until we’ve looked at some other options. Nobody’s wrong here, but it just seems as if we’re giving up too quickly.