Compromise will result in one Candy Dance permit in 2009

A compromise will allow all of the festivals taking place in Genoa during Candy Dance weekend to come under one permit in 2009.

Genoans have for years protested the competing permits which allow business owners to hold their own craft fairs during the weekend. The issue came to a head this year when commissioners told town board members they couldn't deny permits for those fairs if the applicants met the conditions.

Candy Dance was founded in 1919 by Lillian Virgin to raise money for streetlights in the town, which had lost the county seat three years earlier. It consisted of a dance and dinner where homemade candy was sold. Money raised went to install the streetlights and then paid to keep them burning. In the 1970s the crafts fair was added to raise money for children's recreation. The crafts fair has grown to account for the majority of the money raised by the town, and for the lion's share of the town's annual budget.

In response, town board members negotiated with festival organizers Martha Williams, Phil Stoll and Gilles Lagourgue all three have separate permits this year for their fairs, which coincide with Candy Dance on Sept. 27 and 28

Town board members agreed last week to allow all the festivals under their permit in exchange for $26.72 per booth. Town Manager Cheryl Gonzales said the estimated cost per booth for putting on Candy Dance is $118.

Townspeople say the independent festivals are piggybacking on Candy Dance and are able to use the town's work to defray their costs.

Town historian and fourth-generation resident Billie Jean Rightmire posted her feelings in a letter in the Genoa Post Office.

"It's so disturbing and sad that Candy Dance has come to what it is," she said. "So many of the people I talk to when I'm around and about, say 'well, we're not coming to Candy Dance. It's spread out too much. It's gotten too big.' They don't realize that a lot of the spread out part is not part of Candy Dance, but where people have decided to put vendors out in front of their house. Vendors are all over town and its taking away from Candy Dance."

Rightmire said she felt the town board is doing a good job, but said county commissioners need to take the issue seriously.

"Commissioners need to take a closer look at what's happening if they want Genoa to continue to support itself," she said. They should also review the history of the town and take better care of it. We are the first settlement in the state of Nevada. That means something."

In debating the compromise for next year's Candy Dance, town board members said they felt it was a good place to start.

"If we don't take a positive step here, we have to go back to the same sort of warfare we had before," member Brian Williams said. "We have a small window of opportunity."

Board chairwoman Kitty DeSocio said the town's financial stability is the reason for Candy Dance in the first place.

"It's in the best interest of the town is to be financially solvent and independent," she said. "I'm not sure what the Candy Dance model looks like. This is not just about Candy Dance, but being financially stable. We need to be progressive and get a grip on where this is going."

"My mom worked on Candy Dance and I'm sure my grandmother must have," Rightmire said. "I just hate to see traditions that are broken."