City council and local business owners discussed the cancellation of the Italian Festival during a city council meeting Thursday.

Mayor Bob Dandoy emphasized it wasn’t the city’s decision to cancel the festival, but the organizers’ choice. In a detailed email sent by Rocco Lamanna, one of the festival’s organizers, Lamanna expressed frustration over the city saying vendors could not set up before at 2 p.m. on the day of the event.

Lamanna said the tight timeline was one of the main reasons the festival was canceled.

“If the city doesn’t want to allow us to start setting up until 2 p.m. on Friday, I can accept that. It’s your city,” Lamanna wrote. “But I’m not going to put my vendors and workers in a dangerous situation by only allowing three hours total for setup.”

Dandoy said he had responded to the email in hopes city council and event organizers could come to a solution, but he received no response.

“I responded specifically to the festival organizers and the council members with the suggestions that I had,” Dandoy said. “This was a Saturday we received that. I said we’d get together Monday morning, and no response.”

Some of the suggestions, according to Dandoy, was that organizers could set up some parts of the festival Thursday evening, starting at 5 p.m., like the stage area. He added that some of the vendors could start setting up on streets where they wouldn’t disrupt businesses Thursday.

Councilman Donald Shearer said he would have suggested having vendors come in a little later on Thursday, around 8 or 9 p.m., had the organizers been willing to talk the issue through.

“One of the suggestions I would’ve made, had that meeting occurred on Monday, was can we push it to 8 or 9 p.m. for your people to come,” Shearer said. “If we’re going to hamper the businesses, how about 8 p.m. so it’s only the final hour that they’re open? Why does it have to be a 24-hour setup from Thursday to Friday?”

Dandoy agreed that some of the setup would’ve required a 24-hour time frame, but he didn’t understand why all of it needed to be within that time frame, which is partly why he wanted to discuss the setup plans further with event organizers.

Chop Shop owner Bill Atkinson and Miller’s Quality Meats owner Debra Matonak spoke during the public comments portion of the meeting to add some context to how the festival affects businesses along Main Street. They said the festival is meant to be beneficial for both vendors and businesses in theory, but in actuality, the Main Street businesses suffer because of how it’s organized.

“Logistically, they need to lay it out a little bit better so they are a better, actual community event that is beneficial for the business community, the residential community and any vendors that want to set up,” Atkinson said. “It can’t favor one over the other. It has to be a good event for everybody, or else it’s not really, actually a community event.”

Charmaine Fetterman, of the Sons and Daughters of Italy, also spoke during the public comments portion of the meeting as a frequent vendor of the festival. She said the last-minute cancellation was “more than a gut punch” to her and her business, having spent the last six months preparing for the festival.

Following the festival’s cancellation and organizers’ comments that the festival will not return to Butler, Fetterman said she’s working with Butler City Council to develop a new, more authentic Italian Festival for next year, from Wayne Street to Diamond Park. The proposed festival would be a two-day festival rather than a three-day event.

Dandoy and city council members seemed receptive to the idea of a local, grassroots Italian festival and offered a number of ways they could help.

“(Dandoy) is being really helpful with me,” Fetterman said. “I’m going to call and contact anyone I can. The ball is rolling, and I’m going to get to the finish line.”

The Indiana Gazette is assisting the Butler Eagle with reporting resources.