Village Council needs a peacock sponsor
Heather Bettner, Village Council member and the brains behind the Coconut Grove Peacock Tour coming in April, asked the Village Council to sponsor a peacock to the tune of $4400.00.
This is the cost of the fiberglass bird, the fee for the artist who will decorate the bird, the insurance, transportation, permitting, etc.
Right now, the Village Council only has about $13,000 in their budget and putting up a third for the peacocks was not advisable by most of the council. So now a sponsor is being looked for. A corporate sponsor who will buy the peacock and then get their money back when it is raffled off by the Village Council at the end of the Peacock Tour, which will be six months.
Currently, about 20 peacocks are sponsored. There is to be a reception in honor of the artists in March, details to come.
If anyone is interested in helping out the Village Council in sponsoring a peacock, please contact Heather or someone on the Village Council. You can email me and I'll pass the word along to them if you don't know how to reach them.
This is the cost of the fiberglass bird, the fee for the artist who will decorate the bird, the insurance, transportation, permitting, etc.
Right now, the Village Council only has about $13,000 in their budget and putting up a third for the peacocks was not advisable by most of the council. So now a sponsor is being looked for. A corporate sponsor who will buy the peacock and then get their money back when it is raffled off by the Village Council at the end of the Peacock Tour, which will be six months.
Currently, about 20 peacocks are sponsored. There is to be a reception in honor of the artists in March, details to come.
If anyone is interested in helping out the Village Council in sponsoring a peacock, please contact Heather or someone on the Village Council. You can email me and I'll pass the word along to them if you don't know how to reach them.
posted by Tom Falco at 12:30 PM
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14 Comments:
A Grove Peacock Tour sounds cool. I can see parents taking their kids:
"Daddy, where are the peacocks in Peacock park?"
"Well, son, there used to be lots of peacocks in Coconut Grove for many, many years"
"Where are they?"
"Someone took them away last year"
"Why?"
"Dunno, son, dunno, long story"
That money would be better spent getting crack off the streets or rehabbing what’s left of Grand Avenue. Such warped priorities. Shame. These are the kind of really dumb things that Grovites do to make themselves look good. What about addressing the REAL needs of our community???
We elected these people and this is what they are discussing? You have an elected official asking her fellow elected officials to spend nearly half of the funds they have on a project her for-profit company is selling.
And if they get a private sponsor, the elected officials would then be beholden to the private sponsor that ponied up the dough. I can't believe they are even considering this.
9 people and not one of them thought, conflict of interest?
what a glorious waste of money. can think of much better ways to improve our community. agree with anon 3:43
plastic peacocks for plastic people.
How does the corporate sponsor get their money back if no one bids high enough?
As I asked before - What the hell do peacocks have to do with representing Coconut Grove to the tourism world. EVERY other city (50+)that has used this idea of an event of fiberglass animals / decorations had the theme
related to the city.Cows - Chicago, Bulls- Wall Street.There is NO relation of peacocks to the tourist world! Neither feral peacocks(not a symbol of Coconut Grove) nor Peacock park (named after a PERSON) represents Coconut Grove to the world ! What a waste of $. Palm trees, sailboats,maybe alligators,etc represent the Grove and its style/image! Peacocks? Why not feral cats or wild parrots.San Francisco has wild parrots and tourists always equate parrots with San Francisco(A joke).
If the peacocks were "talking" ambassadors that might work.
440K can buy a lot of politicians.
What a suprise...all Anonymous comments. Dont think I don't already know who you are. I can't wait for these beautiful pieces to go up so all of you haters can shut up!
to camille - You , and others still don't get it.Beautiful (or ugly ) pieces is not the point. The CONCEPT (marketing 101) is to relate the product - Coconut Grove - to the image or feel of a place. Thus in the future when people think and visualize an image (peacocks ?) they want to come to a place that is representative of that image."Gee honey -lets visit some place that reminds me of peacocks" is not what is is all about." "Gee honey let's visit some place that has sailboats/palm trees/. etc" is what you want.The image of the Grove ain't peacocks - GET IT ? What a waste of marketing $. PS = you don't know me AND I have no idea who you are !
To those who are blasting the Village Council having a peacock associated with it. Understand the reason, please. We may be elected but unlike the officials who govern the City of Miami, we don't get any allocation from your tax dollars (nor one cent of them), we have no reliable funding sources, no offices, and no staff. We are not in the position, legally or financially, to get rid of crack or rehab Grand Avenue. If we were, many of us would. We have donated funds to needy Grove causes on an emergency basis, such as St. Albans school, the track team that qualified 10 kids for the Junior Olympics and only had the budget to send one, the basketball program at Virrick Park. We spend part of our funds on mailers to inform the public about the issues that are affecting them. Most of our work is accomplished through countless volunteer time given by our members and residents who participate in our committees, and many expenses we incur are not reimbursed.
For the past four years our budget has come from our County Commissioner, Carlos Gimenez's discretionary funds. With the County budget cuts, we can't count on that money. We currently have about one year's budget in the bank because we saved money each year to pay for the cost of an election if the City refused to include us in its ballot, which it did so the money is there, and no guarantee of future funding.
If the peacocks bring a good price at auction at the end of the display, a profit could be made which could act as a fundraiser for us. The other peacocks are being partnered with non-profit organizations for fundraising purposes. $4,400 is a lot of money, and I could not support our spending it or tying it up for six months without the assurance of getting it back, but Heather proposed a way to raise funds which is a good thing. No reason to blast her for it.
If anyone else has suggestions about how the Village Council can raise funds so we can maximize our ability to serve the Grove, we'd be happy to hear those ideas through comments on this blog or at our meeting next month. We could use all the help we can get.
JKH listen I appreciate you reading about The Coconut Grove Peacock Tour on the grapevine and giving your opinion. Your not giving the facts. The facts are the Peacock bring a great deal of releavance to Coconut Grove. Hence Isabella and Charles Peacock who brought the first Inn to South Florida in 1982, called it Peacock Inn. It was located in Peacock Park. Please learn about this stuff or get out!
Don't you get it??? Big sponsors are supporting the Peaocks in Coconut Grove. My efforts are to bring the merchants some foot traffic. Our own local artists are doing what they love and getting paid, Coconut Grove peaocks will help charities in need. You tell me this is a bad things to my face! Come out to Windish-Hunt Fine Art Gallery in the Shopps of Mayfair March 12th 6pm for the first look at the Peacock.
Whenever you require a Peacock fix and wish to see live glorious creatures in a most wonderful natural setting… Then head off to the Rickenbacker Causeway and turn left at the last entrance to Crandon Park. There you will discover the magnificent Quite Garden that used to be our Metro Zoo. There are more beautiful Peacocks, Herons, Egrets, Ducks, Turkeys and Iguanas then you have ever seen in one place. Everyday around 10 AM Key Biscayne women tend to the critters with varieties of seeds for the birds and lettuce for the reptiles. Feeding time is especially entertaining.
To camille - you equate the family name PEACOCK family with the BIRD peacock.Great logic.Once again - 1 is a bird the other is a person - not the same. But using your logic - why not have artists paint statues of the peacock family in period attire that would be relevannt to the history of C grove.Peacock birds are not people. THERE IS NO RELEVANCE. Obviously your stated goal is BIRDS represent to people the feeling of the PEACOCK FAMILY, THE PEACOCK FAMILY are the feelings we want tourists to remember as the symbol for the Grove, not that they they should remember CGrove for palm trees or sun or coconut trees or sailboats to represent the Grove. - The grape- Tom , who says he has a marketing background knows that the BIRDS have no RELEVANCE or lasting future connection to the tourist. Tom should be pointing this out to all on the blog that peacocks are the wrong representation - if he passed marketing 101. I will Send to anybody my mkt college 101, 201, 404,etc books for free if you want an education. Study -learn - then speak -- it really would help. Apple = the big apple = NYC. Bulls = stock exchange = NYC. cows = stockyards = chicago. Peacocks = the famous world wide symbol of the Grove = C Grove. Relevance = future happy thoughts about a place = good marketing --VERY BASIC !
PS camille -I have been here since 1956 - Knew Richard Peacock THE PERSON - NOT THE BIRD - how about you ? Did I see you in the Florida Pharmacy then ? Eating in the Country Store ? At Michael Lange's shop before Woodstock ?
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