THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 23, 1994 TAG: 9412230531
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
After losing a bid to continue running popular summertime events at the Oceanfront, Virginia Beach Events Unlimited laid off five of its eight workers this week.
The absence of those workers will be one more reason the group will have trouble organizing next year's Neptune Festival, said Nancy Creech, president of Events Unlimited, on Wednesday.
The staff members, including the man who presented the company's case to City Council last week, will be let go Dec. 31 without severance pay.
``The monies weren't there after this month,'' said Joseph Gianascoli, the chairman of the company's volunteer board of directors. ``We're hoping to bring them back later on, but right now we just don't have any money to go forward with them on.''
Chris Casey, director of special events, had argued that Events Unlimited deserved to keep the $1 million-a-year contract because of its track record. The non-profit company has held a city contract for four years to organize events at the Oceanfront, including a fireworks competition, July 4 festivities and, this year, the American Music Festival.
City Council instead awarded the contract to Cellar Door Productions of Virginia, a Virginia Beach-based concert promoter and entertainment company.
Packing up his office Wednesday afternoon, Casey talked briefly about his organization's successes this year with the first American Music Festival and a below-budget North American Fireworks Competition. The group had taken heat for overspending at last year's competition and did not get enough credit, Casey said, for improvements this year.
``It was just tough to put on a good year and then have the residual politics tear the whole thing up,'' said Casey, who does not yet know what he will do after next week.
In addition to Casey, those who will lose their jobs are the director of operations and logistics, the director of media relations and promotions, an administrative assistant and a clerical worker, Creech said.
Many of the business leaders who helped organize past Neptune Festivals insisted over the last week that the mid-October event will continue. But Creech said Wednesday that losing the contract will make organizing the 22nd annual Neptune Festival extremely difficult, because profits from the contract helped cover the costs of the festival.
The festival is not financed through the events contract. Instead, it is a public-private venture of the city and local companies. The city's contributions to the festival had been reduced over the last few years as Events Unlimited became more financially successful, Creech said.
``We have now eliminated the opportunity to earn the money to help support the organization,'' Creech said. ``It's not sour grapes. We're very concerned about our ability to produce the quality Neptune Festival.''
Creech said a final decision about the viability of the festival will be made early next year. by CNB