Christmas light show will go ahead with county stepping in
Jessica Webb
editor@thesmokymountaintimes.com
As Swain County Tourism and Development Authority worked over the details of the contract to host Shadrack’s Christmas Wonderland, a regionally well-known Christmas light and music drive-through show, it was back and forth as to whether the event would in fact take place. The board held three special called meetings on Zoom, and finally, after getting the county involved, decided to go ahead with the show despite concerns there wasn’t enough time to plan the event so close to the holiday season.
The light show will take place at the Great Smoky Mountains Event Park, formerly Inspiration Park on Hyatt Creek Road. After 5-3 vote to table the topic until January meant the TDA would not be going into contract to host the event this year, the county stepped in to sign the contract, manage the event and partner with local nonprofits to staff it nightly. Those nonprofits will then benefit, earning funds for their agency.
The first hiccup was that the contract was written for a 3-year commitment, which gave the TDA some pause, including Mary Anne Shea, executive director and board member Erin Smith, who has been working to make the event possible.
She and chairman Jeremiah Wiggins agreed they shouldn’t sell Bryson City short as a small town for its potential to make it a successful event. Wiggins provided the example of it being successful in Tryon, N.C.
Patti-Jo Taylor asked about the specific site.
“Every inch of that event park will be full of lights; it will be a sea of lights and we’re working on the amount of lights we can put on the Coggins property as well,” responded Smith.
The route will be about half a mile. Smith said it’s a slow-moving attraction and it takes on average about 30 minutes to drive through such light shows.
Afton Darnell Roberts asked about the maintenance of the lights, and Shea said it is up to the hosts to fix lights but Shadrack’s provides a contact for guidance.
The first meeting concluded with the board wanting a one-year contract instead.
The contract came back with a performance clause allowing the TDA to terminate the agreement if funding were to become unavailable and there were less than 5,000 cars at the show. On average, the attraction draws over 13,000 cars.
Wiggins was satisfied with the change and motioned to approve the 3-year contract in the board’s second emergency Zoom meeting.
Eugene Shuler, board member, had questions like why the board had not all seen the entirety of the contract. He asked questions about maintenance. Smith tried to allay those concerns, saying the contract is available for review but that she only received the latest copy the day prior.
Both Shuler and board member Shannon Lackey said they weren’t confident in moving forward without all the information they needed and with making a rushed decision on it.
Some discussion followed about liability and the potential need for the county to be involved since the event is on county property. Since the TDA already falls under the county, it’s not a requirement, Shea shared later.
Wiggins moved to adopt, and Smith seconded. Lackey voted no, requesting a chance to review the contract. Also in favor was Shuler. Cheryl Taylor, Patti-Jo Taylor and Andy Bhakta voted no. The decision failed with 4-3.
“I’m trying to rack my brain if the group wants to continue to pursue this,” Wiggins said after the contract failed.
“I think we just skipped a step that needed to be taken— let the board read the contract then we’d go back to Shadrack with our changes, and we’d have a contract we are happy with,” said Cheryl Taylor.
The lightshow will be November-December, but it will be at the park Oct. 10-Jan. 31 including set up and tear down.
Equipment storage was also discussed, allowing it to be stored at other county sites.
“I’m excited for this, but I have reservations simply because I think we’re putting the cart before the horse,” Lackey said, raising the need to have an events coordinator in place and that he would feel less reservation if they had more time. He suggested it be moved to the next year, allowing for more time.
“Unfortunately, opportunities like this do not present themselves within our fiscal timeline,” Smith said.
The event park has been a priority this year, she said, and this event is a good fit to have an event there and a good time to bring an events coordinator on since she would have something to do.
Board member Pooh Lancaster said she was reassured to know County Manager Kevin King was on board and most of her questions had been answered. She said the light show would help make Bryson City a lightshow destination.
She motioned to accept with Smith seconding. The motion failed 5-3 with Patti Jo, Shuler Bhakta, Lackey and Cherly all voting no.
Shuler seconded Lackey’s motioned to table the issue until January to hire an events coordinator and plan to do it for 2023, which passed 5-3.
However, in discussion earlier, Smith said that it wouldn’t necessarily be available to them in 2023.
Wiggins said since the motion passed and carried, they don’t need to continue to discuss it.
Lancaster stressed the time sensitive nature of the event.
“If we don’t sign this contract, are we 100% sure their goal is to place these lights for somewhere for this season. These lights are going somewhere this season and they will not be available to us next year, am I correct in saying that?” she said.
Yes, said Smith.
Shuler said the pressure is like being at a used car lot. He said he would love to see this happen and hoped they could make it happen for last year.
“The issue with that is they broke one show and did two $150,000 shows,” explained Smith. With us not being the other 150,000 show they must place it somewhere or they lose that money.
Now that I know there are two nearby counties that want it once they fill that, they will have a contract, and we will not only not be able to be part of it because of the contract but because we will be such close radius, they won’t even offer it to us,” she said.
County to the rescue
On Friday, the TDA held its third emergency meeting on Zoom to continue the discussion about Shadrack’s.
“Given some new information we received yesterday, it sounds like the county might have the ability to take over and manage the event given TDA sponsorship,” Wiggins said to explain the meeting.
“All this time we’ve wanted to involve some nonprofits with the workforce,” County Manager King said, which they will do through the county’s entity called CORE.
Melissa Barker with the Family Resource Center was on board, he said. The plan is for 50% of each night’s ticket sales to go to the nonprofit volunteering that night, 30% for CORE for future grant funds and 20% for the Family Resource Center.
“We’ll still hire a manager to do some of the other events and we will be working with law enforcement for security and traffic control. County staff will be helping put up and down the event this year with other volunteers of course,” King said.
“We’ve been working behind the scenes working with neighbors to make sure not be impacted,” he added.
We’re just willing to step in and make it happen, he said.
Reactions for the TDA board were mixed, with some frustrations aired about how their vote the previous day to table it seemed to be being undermined.
Lackey began, asking, “Why vote if our motions don’t count? This is the fourth time now we’re voting on this.”
To clarify, he added, “you’re still asking us to pay for Shadrack’s, which is what we talked about for the last 4 meetings.”
Instead of what was previously discussed, now the contract will be between the county and Shadrack’s with the TDA sponsoring it.
Lackey said he didn’t think it was a wise investment. Lancaster disagreed, saying it will be a draw for both visitors and county citizens.
Smith said she considers it a one-year contract essentially given the added performance clause.
“The county is signing the contract. You’re being asked to commit to $150,000 for the show and $60,000 for expenses,” Shea said.
“We have a lot of nonprofits who are in need of money, and this is a great way of giving back to these nonprofits as the TDA,” said King. “Indirectly, you’re giving those revenues back to the community for services.”
“In 2006, when we reorganized the TDA one of the things was to put energy toward an event like this,” King said, “to have it land in our laps is a great thing. I think that’s where our board is,” he added, referring to the Swain County Board of Commissioner.
This year it’s a $210,000 event. If TDA chooses to take it over in future years they could potentially make it a revenue neutral event in future years, it would be no cost at all, Wiggins said.
Shea stressed this event fulfills the TDA’s charge, which is “to put more heads in beds,” and added her staff is thrilled about the event.
“To have that ability to give that money back to the second poorest county in the state of NC I think it’s a fabulous idea, and I really hope you guys support it,” she said.
Shuler, too, asked how can they keep voting on this issue?
“This is almost a worse deal for the TDA than it was the last time,” he said. “Before, the TDA would be able to keep some of those funds back to invest in future endeavors and now we’re giving every bit of it away, Shuler said. He called it “a bad horse trade, right there” with Patti Jo agreeing.
The added expense the first year is for infrastructure in part to make it happen, King said.
Shea warned voting it down would be like a “black eye” for the TDA, creating negative PR for them.
“This will hurt you probably more than you realize if you turn this down, she said.
Wiggins then moved to approve the funding request, seconded by Smith. The motion passed 6-3 with support from Shuler, Lancaster, Afton Darnell Roberts, Andy Bhakta; and a nay vote from Cheryl Taylor, Patti Jo Taylor and Lackey.