City sells banners to fund Labor Day Parade

City Councilor Scott Schafer displays one of the banners featuring the city seal being sold to generate funds for the annual Labor Day Parade. PHOTO/ANGELA GREINER Marlborough - Ward 3 City Councilor Scott Schafer was on hand at the annual Heritage Festival Oct. 5 to generate interest and support for a new fund-raising campaign to off set the cost of the annual Labor Day Parade.

In lieu of turning to local businesses once again for a one-time donation, Schafer said, he was looking to establish a local business partnership.

"Local businesses get hit up all the time and they don't get any recognition," he said.

Piggybacking off an idea first proposed by Public Facilities Director John Ghiloni and City Council Secretary Karen Boule several years ago, Schafer and Councilor at-Large Patricia Pope have established a plan to sell city seal banners for display downtown.

For an initial investment of $400, individuals, businesses or community organizations can purchase a banner with the city seal and their name on it. The company or individual name will be put on a banner, which will be attached to the city seal banner, and hung for about six weeks before and during the Labor Day Parade. For $200, businesses will then be able to renew their signs to be hung again the following year.

"This is a great way to get businesses recognition and off set the cost of the parade," Schafer said.

In a press release, Ghiloni said that the banner with the city seal is a beautiful way to portray the city's history.

"We had purchased stock banners at a reasonable cost; however, the seal banners were too costly and were not something we thought should be purchased with city funds," Ghiloni said. "This is a great program that will enable businesses and private citizens to show their pride in the city by sponsoring a banner, and it is a winwin for everyone."

With budgets becoming increasingly tighter, the parade, which had been paid for out of the celebrations budget, recently found itself on the funding chopping block. Concerned about future budgets and the future of the parade, Schafer and Pope began looking for alternative ways to fund the parade.

"Even though the Labor Day Parade is a longstanding tradition in the city of Marlborough, every year at budget time the cost associated with the parade becomes an issue. As costs go up for all city services, we find ourselves looking at extras like the parade to reduce the budget," Pope said in a press release.

Schafer reiterated this point, saying that every year parade funding comes up for consideration.

"This is a diff erent way to add to the parade without aff ecting the taxpayers," he said.

"I hope businesses will take advantage of this opportunity to sell their business and show their civic pride, while supporting a great cause," Pope said. "I plan on purchasing a banner myself, displaying the Pope family name."