Brutus board votes to allow Tracy Lawrence concert

By: Christopher Caskey / The Citizen

Monday, June 22, 2009 8:39 PM EDT

BRUTUS -- County music star Tracy Lawrence will perform next month in Cayuga County.
In a 3-1 vote, the Brutus Town Board waived a local law that would have prevented the concert from taking place July 10 at the Cayuga County Fairgrounds. The board denied a public assembly permit earlier this month to concert organizers World Racing Group because the company failed to apply early enough.

But a special meeting was held Monday to reconsider the application and the board reversed the initial decision after hearing attorney Andrew Fusco speak on behalf of World Racing Group.

Fusco said he and company representatives have been in touch with all the necessary emergency agencies, including the county sheriff's office, state police and county emergency management office. None of those offices objected to the concert, he said.

"Nobody has espoused a problem with this particular show," Fusco said. "You're not going to be catching anyone by surprise."

The concert will feature Lawrence and two opening acts and organizers expect between 3,000 and 5,000 people to attend. World Racing Group Director of Operations Josh Wells filed an initial application for the event June 4. Local law dictates that event organizers must apply for a permit at least 90 days before the event.

Wells then turned in an almost-complete application during a June 8 town board meeting. He said at the time that the fairgrounds' former property manager had spoken with town officials in April and May about a concert, but did not work out the details.

Wells since filed a certificate of insurance, which covers Weedsport, Brutus and Cayuga County in the case of an incident.

Though the concert's main bureaucratic road block has been the permit issues, town officials have long expressed concerns over traffic and security problems associated with a different concert that used to take place at the fairgrounds.

The K-Rockathon was held annually through last year, but has moved to the state fairgrounds for this year's event on Aug. 8. Every year, the rock concert features several bands and would attract thousands of music fans to the county fairgrounds.

Fusco addressed the concern over K-Rockathon, noting the expected crowd looks to be much smaller. The crowd will also likely consist of older, more responsible attendees, he said.

"This is not going to draw a drug crowd or a young crowd," Fusco said.

Some of the town board questioned why organizers were advertising for the Tracy Lawrence event before the town was notified of the plans. Wells said after the meeting that was a mistake, should not have happened and will hopefully not happen again.

"We didn't have a couple of our t's crossed and a couple of our i's dotted," Wells said.

Town Councilor Tom Flynn voted against issuing the permit, while Jeff Hinman, Robert Ward and David Miller all voted to approve it.

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There are 1 comment(s)

wopinator wrote on Jun 22, 2009 10:16 PM:

" Flynn....yeah... the economic impact to Weedsport would just be terrible. I mean...who needs the extra tax revenue from ticket sales, beer sales, gas sales, food sales. Weedsport is just so wealthy people are being handed refund checks from King Brutus. OMG...traffic...we just can't live with several hours of backed up traffic. There are never traffic jams any where else in the world! Thank you Flynn for being so small minded and protect the sacred community of Brutus. NOT! "

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