(Estherville)– The Estherville City Council Monday approved a provision that will temporarily relax some ordinances for RAGBRAI. The relaxation will be for several things, including the allowance of open containers in public places including the outdoor entertainment area downtown and parks. The temporary relaxation will be in place beginning July 21st and will end at 5:00 pm July 22nd.
In addition, RAGBRAI Committee Chair Lexi Ruter says establishments in Estherville will have a limited time on July 21st during which they’ll be able to offer live entertainment…
“I hate to put a rule on it at all, I mean it would be great but the expense we’ve had to invest in having a live band, I think it’s just best that none of us compete with the other. We’ll just give them a time when they don’t have competition unless they all choose to do something, in which case, you know, then they compete with each other but not on such a large scale like we are downtown and then we take the night slot and kind of let each other have their time to make money.”
Ruter adds the committee will be responsible for issuing permits for various vendors with revenue from the fees going to help offset some of the cost of bringing RAGBRAI to Estherville. She says they’ve set a budget of $120,000…
“$50,000 from RAGBRAI, $20,000 from local option sales tax from the city and $20,000 in local option sales tax from the county. That puts us at a total of 90. We did not want to go to our businesses and ask with Sweetcorn Days and the fair and RAGBRAI all within a two-week time period that all of our businesses are supporting. It seemed like too big of an ask to go ask for a third event. So we raised 90. The budgets show that costs about $110,000 to $120,000 to host RAGBRAI, so all those food fees and some of those things that we can bank on in advance goes toward getting us to that $120,000 budget.”
Ruter says any revenue that surpasses that will be donated to nonprofits selected by the Chamber of Commerce.
Estherville is the second overnight stop on this year’s RAGBRAI route, with Milford being the first.
