GIRL ABOUT TOWN – Trina Avedisian - 

There has been some rave revues on the first ever Port Huron Anchor Drop at McMorran Place in Downtown Port Huron.  There was also some speculation about the budget . . . who paid for it and did it come out of city coffers (or more like, was it paid for by McMorran).    The event was a McMorran sponsored event.  Chairperson, Patti Samar shared that there are three ways they host events at McMorran.  Someone can come in and rent any part of the facility to put on an event.  McMorran also hosts some things on its own.  Smaller events like a band playing on the front lawn during the summer for 2 weekends with a beer tent or the Anchor Drop are examples.  Or bigger events like Second City concerts.  

 As with all events, there is a price tag and since McMorran is partially funded by tax dollars.

Here is the break down:

Actual Money Spent (meaning checks were written for this):

The tent = $4,400

The band = $800

The beer and concessions = $1,662

Security = $480

McMorran Labor = $576

For a grand total of $7,918

In-kind services (meaning things that were donated but you still have to put a value on).  In-kind services are a little harder to actually give an exact amount due to it being donated:

A local business donated sheet metal which was valued at $5,000

The rest of these are lumped in together:

• SC4 Welding Class made the Anchor as a project
• Mailings asking for donations (postage and printing of envelopes donated by a local business)
• E-mail blasts to the email list donated by a local business.
• Promotions and design of printed flyers donated by a local business.

These all equaled to about $400.  An estimated grand total for in-kind services was $5,400  The grand GRAND total for the event adding the in-kind services and the actual checks written was $13,318.

Now for the income side.

They received $1,750 in donations with the Blue Water Young Professional group being the biggest contributor.

Concessions = $250

Beer Tent = $3,200

Grand total on income was $5,200.

So, if you take the actual money they spent ($7,918) and you subtract the income ($5,200) you would get a total of $2,718 that this event cost McMorran.

 The hope of the McMorran Commission is that this event will help drawn outside interest as well as local interest into the downtown.  A blogger who writes a lot for Pure Michigan did a piece on the cool things to do in Michigan on New Years Eve. It had to be unique.  This Anchor Drop made the blog, so other people were able to read about this and about Port Huron.

 The complete article may be read at:  http://www.abouttownmag.com/girl-bout-town/the-city-of-port-hurons-first-anchor-drop-what-it-cost-and-more/