Shawano County officials and the Shawano Hockey League will continue to explore ways to make the Crawford Center a profitable venue.
The Shawano County Public Property Committee on March 7 gave the go-ahead to have further discussions about creating an organization to market the building during the months when it is not used by the hockey league.
Kevin Helmuth, vice president of the hockey league, said in a letter to Steve Dreher, director of the county’s building maintenance department, he and others from the hockey league want to be part of a committee to market the site.
“We agreed that the league won’t want to take on the financial responsibility of the utilities, so I came up with the idea that I, through one of my businesses, would guarantee the utilities and then would also pay the person that we’d hire,” Helmuth wrote.
Dreher told the committee such an arrangement would remove all utility expenses for the county during the summer months.
“All summer long, we pay that peak charge (for utilities),” Dreher said.
Negotiations are yet to be held, but County Board Chairman Tom Kautza said it would be necessary to have the Crawford Center open for the Shawano County Fair as well as other events that regularly are scheduled.
Dreher said he would assume this new group would cover all other expenses (dumpsters, utilities, supplies, etc.) just like the hockey league does now.
Helmuth said he expected his lease with the county would be similar to the hockey league’s lease, although both want a lease longer than the recent one-year deal.
Dreher said that in the past the lease was a five-year deal, but the county ran into issues during the last lease due to “internal turmoil and upheaval” of hockey leadership.
Regardless of what happens with Helmuth’s proposal, at least two events will be scheduled for the Crawford Center in the next few months.
First, Shawano Speedway will use the building April 6 for a car show.
“They would like to use it … as kind of their kickoff,” Dreher said. “They did it last year, and it was kind of a last-minute thing, because they had arrangements for somewhere else and that fell through.”
The only cost to the county would be lights during the event.
“We had no problems last year at all,” Dreher said.
Although the county typically charges for use of the building, there will be no charge for this car show, as the ag society would pay the fee and the proceeds would turn around and be used for the county fair, which is put on the by the ag society.
Dreher said normal minimum charges are $250 a day for nonprofits, $500 for nonprofits that charge an entry fee and $1,000 a day for for-profits.
“They want to get the excitement going on,” Dreher said. “There’s a lot of people that live and breathe that race track.”
Coming on June 7 will be the All American Circus, which has been in Shawano in years past.
Cathy English, who works in the circus’ front office, wrote in a letter to county staff the circus would arrive about 9 a.m. and be gone by around 10 p.m.
Dreher said last year’s charge was either $1,000 or $1,200 plus a $1,000 refundable deposit.
kpasson@newmedia-wi.com
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