The Fat Tire Festival was set to be discussed, at commissioner Melissa Greene’s request, at last Wednesday’s CAPC meeting. Events Coordinator Tracy Johnson stated she was not prepared to discuss this and commissioner James DeVito recommended deferring the item saying, “Let’s move on.”
But Johnson continued to speak. “I do want to let everyone in this audience know that I’m a quite intelligent human being and I’m very aware of the guidelines and the situation that we are in right now as a species.” Johnson thanked the audience for coming to support her and special events, and went on to say, “I’m not gonna waste everybody’s time by telling you that my main focus for Fat Tire is something that’s never been done before.
“My mission this year was to make sure that every mountain biker who came to town that I encountered, or who goes on those trails, knows about downtown.” Johnson said she wanted to capitalize on the mountain biking industry utilizing the Passion Play location. “The reason it is at the Passion Play right now is because we can’t do things in our Basin Park,” Johnson said. “I need those riders to be by downtown so that I can get them to ride their bikes downtown, I can get them to come eat downtown, shop downtown, and sleep downtown all weekend, while being safe.”
Commissioner Harry Meyer asked, “Can we have the event outside the city?” Johnson responded “Yes,” but commissioner Jeff Carter said, “I think that is something that needs discussion,” Meyer said he believes it needs to be discussed with the Arkansas Municipal League.