Abilene City Council discusses special event permit policy & impact on local businesses

ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) – Downtown Abilene has become a destination for a lot of businesses, festivals, and large gatherings. Thursday morning, the Abilene City Council talked about amending the special event permit policy, which requires various fees and permissions. These events attract hundreds, if not thousands, to the Key City, but how do they affect the stores right in front of them?

Before the council meeting, Mayor Weldon Hurt said he had received feedback about the current policy.

“The feedback I’m getting is it is still very burdensome and cumbersome to get through this process,” Mayor Hurt said.

Grain Theory, located on Pine Street, has benefited from the influx of people during the events. Owner Jeramie Sivy told KTAB/KRBC that during the last Christmas parade, even with preparations, there was still an overflow of business.

“Business actually picks up quite a bit when parades come downtown because we get a lot of families coming in to enjoy our location,” Sivy said. “The amount of people was pretty wild. We staffed for the event, and we had a few extra people on. It was still pretty hectic.”

Around the corner at Roll Shack, manager Scarlet Crosby said she also prepares in advance when an event is happening, but she hopes to see better communication from the city in the future.

“We just had to go with the flow. So, on the morning of, I usually come in and stock everything. We buy more ingredients just in case there is an influx in customers,” Crosby said. “Having like a month’s notice so that we can prepare, kind of get all the information that we need to and just go from there and kind of understand what the amount of people might be coming in with.”

The council postponed the decision and appointed a subcommittee to examine the issue more thoroughly before bringing it back to the council.