 The Bemidji City Council is working on fine-tuning a new events ordinance. A second public meeting to discuss the ordinance was held tonight. Groups who the council thought the ordinance would affect were personally invited, however the meeting was open to everyone. The group discussed the wording of the ordinance as well as what were the best ways to go about requesting city property. Some in the original creation of that ordinance, some people who are event organizers felt it was too overbearing and so we are trying to meet their needs as well as the public's needs as well as the city's needs for proper use and proper notification of public property. In the future groups will be required to complete paperwork before hosting an event. The group also discussed which specifics the public and area businesses would need to know before an event takes place. Notifying businesses how far out distance wise from a street closure we would feel we would need to notify businesses as well as residents for in particular parades and what we decided was we hold about six parades in the city per annum, different groups do and that parades will be exempt from notification because there are just too many folks that would need to get a personal letter and that's very expensive. An ordinance takes three readings for approval the events ordinance will have its second reading at a later city council meeting. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.