County revamping its large event ordinance, worrying dairy breakfast organizers

Marathon County is working on amending its large event ordinance - but the changes have organizers of county dairy breakfasts worried about the impact it could have on their events. 

Marathon County’s Environmental Resources Committee approved recommending a new version of the ordinance to the county board Tuesday. 

The county is looking at revamping the ordinance after the county’s legal team raised concerns that the previous version might not be constitutional because it places restrictions on large assemblies that could violate First Amendment rights. 

But the threshold the county was considering of 3,000 attendees made organizers of the eight dairy breakfasts in the county nervous because it might place an additional burden on those organizers. Most of the breakfasts have between 2,000 and 3,000 attendees, organizers said at Tuesday’s meeting.

Committee members made their recommendation of the ordinance with changes that raise the attendee level threshold to 5,000 before a permit would be required. The committee also scrapped specific parking plans included in the draft ordinance for more loose guidelines after the county attorney raised First Amendment concerns. 

The ordinance will go before the Public Safety and Infrastructure committees before reaching the Marathon County Board.

Organizers of larger events, such as the Taste N Glow Balloon Festival held in the town of Stettin, say they're not yet sure of the impact on events such as theirs, they told City Pages.