Amherstburg's Open Air Weekends are set to continue for at least the next two years following a lengthy debate at council Monday night.
Administration presented council with their findings from a survey on the event, and council then voted on the Economic Development Committee's recommendation to continue the event with the same format, same time, and same duration for the remainder of the current term of council, which is two years.
The report showed that the 14 week event, which closes downtown streets from Friday afternoons to Sunday evenings, drew in around 104,219 people in total on average.
Attendees contributed an estimated $4,286,991 in spending, and the estimated cost to tax payers to put on the event over the 35 days was $22,488, after grant and sponsorship funding was accounted for.
Councillor Molly Allaire had concern that it could potentially cost tax payers more should the town not be approved for grant funding next year.
She suggested the town shorten the length of the event.
"I love the idea of making seven weekends a huge weekend, every seven weekends for seven months. That would be great. So one weekend a month would be a successful business model. Then people would know when it's coming, one weekend a month, that's great, and they know it's going to be successful, they know it's going to have a theme, it's going to be fantastic."
Linden Crain says the time council has spent on trying to cut back on Open Air could have been time spent on making it better.
"The numbers speak loud and clear, for $22,488 and $4.2 million in economic impact is exactly why I'm supporting Open Air and will continue to support Open Air. And I hope that this conversation, if it comes back to council again, it's on how we can make it even better."
Councillor Diane Pouget wanted to see the event scaled down to one weekend a month.
"Some weekends only six out of 15 for the night market show up. We are playing Russian roulette with other peoples lives and businesses. It was a great idea during COVID, now it is just too much."
Mayor Michael Prue reminded council that the reason for the debate was to find out what the businesses, 49 of which participated in the survey, thought of Open Air.
"25 businesses think it's great, three businesses think it would be greater if the footprint was larger, 12 or some number like that don't like it at all and the rest don't have an opinion. What that tells me, it's more than two to one of the businesses down there think it's a good idea."
The recommendation passed with councillors Allaire and Pouget opposed.
Councillor Peter Courtney was not in attendance during the vote.