Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau might run popular parade

The Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau has entered into discussions to oversee the popular St. Patrick’s Day Parade, after the City Council determined it could no longer fund the event.
The Council in June unanimously axed funding for special events including the parade, a series of summer concerts at the pier, and downtown celebrations marking the Christmas season and New Year’s Eve.
Council members expressed hope that the private sector would find ways to keep the special events afloat, and Allen Sanford of St. Rocke stepped in to produce this summer’s concerts.
Now the chamber has begun talking with city officials about the possibility of overseeing the St. Pat’s parade. That would return the parade’s original spearhead, chamber mainstay J. Travers Devine, to its organizational head.
Devine, the chamber’s 2008 man of the year, helped launch the parade in 1995 along with Jean Cullen. The parade quickly became one of Hermosa’s most popular public events, with the exception of 2003, when it was rained out.
Devine retired from overseeing the event in 2005, handing it over to a volunteer committee, which ran out of steam and handed it off to the City Council in 2007.
Now, the chamber’s main concern is the same as that expressed by the city: how much will it cost to put on the parade, Devine asked last week.
“I think it’s a question of money,” said Devine, the chamber’s vice president for special events for the past 15 years. “You never make money on the parade, but you want to keep [the costs] reasonable. I think if we can do that, we’re willing to do it.”
Among the event’s costs, Devine cited fees charged by the city, and a city requirement to run shuttle buses to and from the parade.
A decision on the operation of the 2011 parade should be made no later than autumn, said Devine and Councilman Kit Bobko, who has taken part in the parade discussion. That timeline would allow organizers to make arrangements with marching bands, vintage auto owners and other participants. ER