DEADWOOD - A player of the “penny whistle” seeking approval to play on Historic Main Street sidewalks every afternoon in the summer has threatened the city board with “civil disobedience” if she is not given the board’s permission.
Anna Martinez started her request process with the city board three weeks ago with the board telling her at the meeting on March 11 the city’s liability insurance carrier would have to be contacted for a recommendation on whether Martinez would need to carry her own liability insurance to get board approval.
Informed last night that the city’s insurance carrier did recommend she carry insurance, Martinez had harsh words for the board.
Calling the actions of the board in applying the ordinance that is also used for street theater performers using blank-shooting pistols “absurd,” she promised “to take this to the limit on First Amendment (free speech).”
She further told the board members they were being “ridiculous” in setting requirements for her to be able to play the whistle.
Finance Officer Mary Jo Nelson said the insurance carrier had expressed one concern of a person being forced into the street from the sidewalk as a result of those gathered to listen to Martinez which could lead to that person being struck by a car.
Earlier, board members had expressed concern over Martinez’s plan to hand out free whistles to children.
Martinez told the board she talked to different insurance carriers and they thought the issue of her getting insurance for her performances was “laughable.”
“I cannot afford this,” Martinez told the board of the insurance requirement, adding that she lives on Social Security benefits.
Commissioner Ron Island told Martinez that, as a businessman, he deals with “frivolous law suits,” as a part of doing business and that protecting the city in the event Martinez’s activity generates such lawsuits is proper for the city board members.
Island suggested Martinez explore if the owners of Main Street businesses she said have been in favor of her performances would be willing to help with the liability insurance or to provide that insurance through their business insurance. Martinez has said several businesses are in favor of her performing in front of their establishments but not inside of those establishments.
She has emphasized her popularity with children in her previous performances on the street during last year’s Deadwood Jam. She questioned why she was allowed to play on the street at that time and not to do the same this summer.
Nelson said the Deadwood Jam had covered street musicians, allowed to play during the Jam, under the Jam’s insurance policy.
The board suggested Martinez look further into providing her own insurance and then to get back to the board on what she finds.
On another issue of music, Deadwood Jam organizer “Louie” LaLonde appeared before the board to ask whether a commitment made last year when the Friday performance of the event was canceled due to a state-wide “Day of Prayer” for the Sept. 11 victims would be honored.
Toscana said he had been a part of those discussions with Jam organizers that had centered on a willingness to use “Bed and Booze” tax money to help the Jam if it lost money due to the cancellation of the Friday concerts.
Commissioner Bruce Oberlander asked why the Jam needed financial help when it had found $5,000 to donate to victims of Sept. 11 in New York City.
LaLonde said the Jam had lost money expected to be made on Friday, but unexpected high turn-out for the Saturday concerts had led to the total event finances staying in the black.
She said the organizers have always had the goal, every year, of “taking the Jam to the next level” in better name entertainers and concerts. To do this for the coming year, with negotiations now necessary to book entertainment, the organizers need to know if the money from the city will be available for planning those entertainment contracts.
Toscana said that while he thought the Jam had done a great job in building a popular event for Deadwood it was his sense of talks he had last September that support from the city would be for any “short fall.”
He said he wanted to see the books for last year’s event to see what money had been made or lost noting he had made a formal request at that time.
LaLonde and Deadwood Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Dave Ruth said they had provided figures for the board at that time, meeting the need Toscana noted to have requests for money from the city come in no later than September for use in the annual budget process which must be finalized in October.
Those figures presented by the Jam, said Nelson, had just been for Friday and had not been for the entire multi-day event.
Toscana requested all figures for the last-year’s event before the board would take any action on the request.
LaLonde said she was requesting $30,000 from the city Bed and Booze tax fund noting the city has previously helped other events such as the Days of '76 which has received two years of financial support for “purse” money for cowboys winning events at the rodeo.
In other business, the board:
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- Tabled discussion on a request from Four Aces Casino and Hotel for lease of parking spaces in the Lower Main Street Parking Lot until next week to allow a meeting of the Business Improvement District to discuss the issue at the request of Island;
\ - Granted permission for closure of Main Street and parking by members of an Impala owners group on July 23 from 8:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.;
\ - Set April 8 for a public hearing on public events for the summer for the Adams House Museum which may include the need for an amplified music permit for one of the events scheduled for week-end afternoons in the summer;
\ - Increased trolley driver Tod Stoneberger’ s wages, after three years of employment, from $8 to $9;
\ - Gave permission for Police Chief Dan DeNeire to extend 20-hours of annual leave for 30-additional days to give the Chief time to use that leave time;
\ - Approved the purchase of a PTO powered generator for Fire Department Engine 1 which was in the 2002 budget in the amount of $10,000, approximately one-half the normal price, with the Fire Department Maintenance Person and members of the volunteer department doing the installation work;
\ - Approved paying Macrovision to take historic home movie film donated to the city by Bob Nelson from the property of Bill Yeager, and place it on DVD format discs due to the fragile nature of old movie film. The cost for the initial film job will be $1,000;
\ - Approved paying $1,000 toward the printing of a poster for the annual Island in the Plains, Black Hills oriented archeological conference to be held this year in Deadwood;
\ - Approved historic preservation department part-time intern Deanna Berglund attending the State Historical Society annual meeting in Pierre at a cost not to exceed $75;
\ - Reviewed documents prepared by City Attorney John Frederickson for amendments to bond issues in order to include projects approved two weeks ago by the city;
\ - Heard from Oberlander that he held a meeting on a skateboard park with one adult and two youth attending. He said the “door is open” at this time for further community involvement in the project but that the limited showing at the meeting lends a no-action result for any city funding for the proposed $30,000 project;
\ - Met in executive session for personnel issues at the request of Frederickson after the regular meeting with no action taken after the closed-door session was ended;
\ - Heard from Public Works Superintendent Tom Pascoe that the Parents and Teacher Organization for Lead and Deadwood will hold an Easter Egg Hunt in Gordon Park on March 30 from noon to 1 p.m.;
\ - Heard from local resident Jim Phillips about a contractor working on a city project for a retaining wall leaving dirt on Selby Street, which is his only access to his garage for his home on Forest Avenue, resulting in several inches of mud in the previously hard packed street where there are no guard rails. The board directed Pascoe to look into the matter; and,
\ - Heard from Toscana that the city will pay for any board members or department heads wanting to attend the regional municipal league banquet in Deadwood coming up on April 23.