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    • The Renaissance Festival’s deal with the Village of Ohio hinges on the vote
    Idaho

    The Renaissance Festival’s deal with the Village of Ohio hinges on the vote

    Madoc Meredith Posted on

    The Ohio Renaissance Festival will remain in Harveysburg, but a ballot measure to dissolve the village could jeopardize the village’s agreement with the festival owners.

    Brimstone & Fire LLC, owner of the medieval festival, agreed in September to pay the Ohio village a 2.5% entrance tax on events after a Warren County judge ruled that the company could not separate its land from the village .

    The Ohio Renaissance Festival attracts over 200,000 visitors to Brimstone’s location on Ohio 73 each year, but the admission tax also applies to other Brimstone events such as Celtic Fest and Haunt. The Renaissance FThe festival alone accounted for 14% of Harveysburg’s revenue in 2022.

    “It was good for both sides,” Harveysburg Mayor Jonathan Funk said of the agreement. “The doors are now open for us to help people as we should.”

    But that agreement, which will bring the village at least $100,000 a year for the next decade, will be history if residents vote to dissolve the village next month.

    There is a petition circulating to dissolve Harveysburg again

    For the second year in a row, Harveysburg’s roughly 500 residents will vote on whether to dissolve the Warren County village.

    Should the village dissolve, the agreement between Harveysburg and Brimstone would be terminated. The company would not have to pay the minimum $100,000 to the village, which is more than double the amount it paid Harveysburg in 2022, the year its previous contract ended.

    An Enquirer public records request revealed that the petition to dissolve the village received 94 valid signatures and was circulated by residents Mike Hatfield, Terri Smith and Jennifer Brough. Two of them appear to have ties to the Renaissance festival, Enquirer research has found.

    Brough listed her residence in the petition as belonging to Brimstone near the Renaissance Festival site, according to county auditor records. Six other signatories of the petition also used this address. According to her posts, a Facebook user and Harveysburg resident named Terri Smith works at the Renaissance Festival. However, it is unclear whether this is the same Smith who circulated the petition.

    Hatfield, who also filed a petition to dissolve the village in 2023, did not respond to the Enquirer’s request for comment. Calls to Smith and Brough were not returned.

    After Harveysburg and Brimstone reached their current agreement, Brian Sleeth, director of the Warren County Board of Elections, said the mayor and others asked if the petition could not be submitted, which would allow the resolution to be removed from the ballot. Sleeth said it would have been unprecedented to kill a petition-driven ballot measure.

    Funk said the village now has a “great relationship” with Brimstone and its managing partner David Ashcraft. The Enquirer called Ashcraft to ask about the petition, but he did not return those calls.

    Also on the ballot: tax contributions

    Harveysburg residents voted to keep their village government in place in 2023 — but at the same time, they voted against funding.

    A utility levy and a police levy, both in effect for years, failed, leaving the village with a $50,000 budget deficit this year, Funk said.

    “I think people have kind of lost trust in the village,” Funk said.

    Now the local council is trying to reintroduce these taxes.

    If passed, the operating levy would cost homeowners $105 for every $100,000 of their home’s value and cover village government costs. The police levy would cost homeowners $88 per $100,000 of their home’s value and fund the 13-member Harveysburg Police Department, which needs about $50,000 a year to operate, Funk said.

    As mayor, Funk receives $2,000 per year. The village’s six council members receive no salary.

    The village will also lose funding if it dissolves

    Aside from the agreement with Brimstone, the village also faces a significant loss of funding if it is dissolved.

    Harveysburg received a $168,000 Community Development Block Grant from the federal government to rehabilitate several streets and applied to the Ohio Public Works Commission for a $305,000 grant to rehabilitate Maple Street.

    “If we break up, we lose that,” Funk said.

    The village previously spent $425,000 in grants from federal and state sources on new storm sewers and road improvements.

    Funk said residents have expressed frustration at having to pay building and zoning fees to the village. However, if Harveysburg dissolves and becomes incorporated into Massie Township, residents will pay those fees to Warren County and Massie instead.

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    Madoc Meredith
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