The Havre de Grace City Council has agreed to create an Independence Day 2017 Commission, which the new leaders of the annual July 4 festivities had requested earlier.
The resolution creating the commission was unanimously approved by the council with little discussion during Tuesday night's council meeting. Councilmen Mike Hitchings and David Martin were absent.
"I am glad to see this so quickly on the docket, but what's important is that we help those who are working hard," Councilwoman Monica Worrell said about the commission.
The resolution notes the new commission will have the same purpose and duties as the longtime Havre de Grace Independence Day Celebration, Inc., which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. The resolution does, however, also have a sunset provision, so the new commission might only be in effect for the 2017 celebration.
Several of the nonprofit corporation leaders have said they retired and the corporation was dissolved, but the city has not received written evidence of a proper corporate dissolution under federal or state law, according to the resolution.
Volunteers have stepped forward to take up the corporation's work and have "expressed the need for the fiscal year 2017 funds in the current amount of $3,500, which the city delivered to the corporation after July 1, 2016, for the coming year's Fourth of July celebration," according to the resolution.
Prior members have also advised the volunteers that the old corporation has $50,000 to $60,000 to transfer to them, and the volunteers have said creating their own nonprofit could take more than a year, according to the text.
The resolution states that the mayor, with approval from the city council, shall appoint at least five, but not more than 11, members to the commission.
The commission members will serve for a period of one year, and, six months before the expiration of their terms, they will tell the city if the commission should be extended for another year or replaced with a new nonprofit.