(Milford)– While being an overnight stop on the RAGBRAI route brings some economic benefits to those communities, it also brings a heavy financial commitment. Susan Reiser heads up the budget committee for the Milford RAGBRAI Committee. She says they’ve formed Milford RAGBRAI, LLC, as a channel for finances…
“This is the organization now that will handle all the ins and outs of the money from the budgeting. The Milford Commercial Club is the 5013C which is required to accept the money and then they transfer it to Milford RAGBRAI LLC. We have set a $50,000 budget and that will go with the $50,000 that the RAGBRAI state committee has given us and then the city is tossing in some money, too. It takes a lot of money to put on RAGBRAI.”
Reiser says most of that money is already spent even though the event isn’t until in July…
“We have ordered 7,200 cans of beer, we don’t know if that’s enough but that’s what the distributing company seems to thing that that will be adequate amount. We are paying $31,000 in concert fees already to two bands and we possibly will have a third band. The port-a-pots, they’re $100 each and we ordered 100 of them, so you’re looking at $10,000. And then the tents are going to run about $10,000 each. We haven’t even looked at the insurance. I think I sent in seven different insurance policies from protecting us against bad weather to having a liquor license and everything in between to cover volunteers and to cover this and that.”
To help offset some of those expenses, Reiser says the Milford RAGBRAI Committee has established several levels of sponsorships for those who would like to donate…
“The Chain Reaction is a $5,000 contribution and that is nice because you get your actual logo on their t-shirt that everyone will be wearing. But we have other ones. The Gear Grinder for $2,500; Spoke Sponsor for $1,000; and the Kickstand Sponsor for $500. In addition we have the Adopt A Pot going on and those 100 porta-pots, you can adopt one. We can put your picture on there, you can put a nice saying, you can put on a within reason saying for $25. So if you want to do something on a smaller scale to help our RAGBRAI you can do that and you can contact me at the Catholic Church and we can get you set up. I’ve already sold about 35 of the 100, so.”
Milford officials say the exposure the city will be getting by being an overnight stop for the first night of RAGBRAI will also be significant. In that regard they say it’s important the city puts its best foot forward.
