Planned youth concert gets city backing

New Port Richey pledges $7,000 to help organizers of a show involving two teen groups.

By BETH GLENN

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 17, 2000

NEW PORT RICHEY -- The New Port Richey Community Cooperative and Ridgewood High School's Future Business Leaders of America Club convinced city leaders to contribute $7,000 to an upcoming concert that will bring pop music teen groups LFO and PYT to the city.

In a 3-1 vote in which council member Ginny Miller reversed her earlier vote, the City Council committed $2,000 to the event, plus $5,000 for a deposit. If the co-op and club sell as many tickets as they project, the city will be reimbursed the $5,000 deposit fee.

"I'm going to go ahead and support this mainly because of the enthusiasm from the students, and also because it's a good opportunity for the co-op to get back on level ground," Miller said at Tuesday night's council meeting.

When the council met last week as the Community Redevelopment Association to render a recommendation on the co-op's request, Miller and council member Frank Parker voted against the measure. Mayor Peter Altman joined council members Tom Finn and Jack Van Kuren to recommend the request. Van Kuren was absent Tuesday.

The April 29 concert at Sims Park will be a fundraiser for the co-op and the FBLA. Students will be responsible for selling 1,250 tickets at $20 apiece. When Altman queried FBLA's District 11 president Emily Meyer as to whether she could assure the city would be repaid before her group realized its profits, Meyer was optimistic.

"I can guarantee that won't be a problem, because of the intense interest in this concert," she said, citing inquiries from students at other schools before the event had even been advertised. "I can guarantee a half-full crowd of girls screaming for LFO and the other half full of guys ogling PYT."

The money promised to the co-op will come from the city's special activities fund, which technically was exhausted by the January millennium celebration. But council members said they would shore up the fund with a cash infusion later in the year that would pay back the $7,000 committed for the event as well as about a $16,000 shortfall.

In other business Tuesday, city leaders accepted a $27,000 federal grant to buy a new van for use by the crime scene evidence technician.

The council also discussed the ongoing efforts of neighboring Port Richey to acquire Lindrick Utilities' service area, which abuts New Port Richey. Council members decided to fan out to neighborhood association meetings in upcoming weeks where the deal will be discussed. Staffers and council members will be on hand to answer questions to see if the waterfront communities in and around Gulf Harbors will become a part of the city.

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