VALPARAISO | Discussion of the proposed budget for the city's share of the county economic development income tax revived the debate over the future of the annual Popcorn Fest.

City Council President Al Eisenmenger said at the Dec. 8 council meeting the festival appeared to have run its course and should be discontinued because of the high cost of the city services for the event and the declining revenues and tighter budgets brought on by the imposition of the new property tax caps.

At Monday's meeting Eisenmenger asked if the $100,000 proposed in the EDIT budget for "downtown events and improvements" was intended to cover the city's cost for police and public works employees' work at the festival. He said he has heard nothing from Special Events Coordinator Tina St. Aubin or anyone else since his comments last month.

Mayor Jon Costas said the money is to be used to plan new events to attract people to the downtown, but he added the city, St. Aubin and the Valparaiso Community Festivals and Events board are looking at the festival to see if there are ways to improve it and make it more of a local event that reflects "the nature of the city and who we are."

"My feeling is we need to continue the festival, but we need to change some things," Costas said. "The races and the parade are popular and probably will stay, but everything else is being considered."

He said St. Aubin is gathering information from merchants, talking to other communities about their festivals and putting together some thoughts of her own that will be presented to the council. Costas said the process of changing the festival could take two years. City Administrator Bill Hanna said the city needs to consider that some nonprofit organizations depend on the festival to raise their entire annual budget.

Eisenmenger called the evening of the Saturday event a "drunk fest" and said, "If you can't afford it, you don't throw a party. I see a lot of people from out of state setting up a table at this event and then leaving with the money."

Costas said the issue of out-of-town vendors using the festival is one of the things being looked at the hardest, but he warned the cost for extra police and for public works cleanup are "part of putting on any festival or event."

Parks Director Steve Doniger said the festival has changed and grown over the 30 years of its existence and "we are trying to get a handle on the things that are not as functionally sound as they ought to be."

"What we're hearing from the community is they like that hometown atmosphere of all the downtown activities whether its the Popcorn Fest, the downtown park, the movie nights, the trick or treating or other events," Doniger said.

Councilman Joey Larr challenged Eisenmenger's reference to Saturday being a drunk fest, saying it was no worse than in other communities and not a reason to cancel the festival.

"The festival brings people to our community that otherwise would not come here," Larr said.