LIGONIER — The residents of Ligonier plan to turn an alleged crime into an opportunity to rally community pride.
On Monday, city residents learned that the chairwoman of the city’s Marshmallow Festival was arrested on felony charges of stealing festival funds, along with money from her employer. Now residents are working to gather funds, and gumption, to keep this year’s festival on track for its Labor Day weekend run.
“The festival will continue,” said Mayor Patty Fisel. “Actually, the city of Ligonier is a city that rallies around whenever we have something negative happen. We work really hard to turn it into a positive.”
Fisel said city residents are shocked that Tamara Deel, 42, has been charged with a felony for allegedly taking more than $100,000 from her employer, who has not been named, and another felony for allegedly taking more than $15,000 from the festival.
Fisel said the festival committee will still be able to earn cash for this year’s event through ticket sales and income from vendors.
“A lot of vendors have made deposits, but they have not paid the total amount. We have our Rotary Club that sells tickets and all the proceeds go to the festival,” Fisel said. “We will have funds that come in. We talked to the ride people and they will be here and the rides will go on and the parade will go on. We just expect it actually to be better than in the past because adversity creates a response from the community.”
The festival committee was to meet Thursday night and discuss with an attorney how to proceed and to elect a new chairperson, according to Fisel’s daughter, Pamela Howard, who is on the committee.
One immediate change she will lobby for is the requirement that more than one board member be required to sign checks for festival business.
Howard said she has been a member of the committee for about five years and that Deel was on the committee when she joined. Howard said the news of Deel’s alleged crimes was, “A pretty low blow.”
The committee consists of four board members, according to Howard, with about six other people attending meetings regularly. Then there is a loose association of up to 10 people who take on certain tasks who don’t attend meetings regularly.
Howard said there is no doubt the festival will continue as usual because the bad news has brought promises of support from around the community.
“There are already quiet a few people who stepped up and said they will do whatever they can to keep the festival going,” Howard said.
And in preparation for the event, Fisel said tickets for carnival rides at the festival should go on sale at the city’s two Lake City Bank branches and at City Hall beginning Monday.
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Related Photos
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Children participate in the bed races during the 2008 Ligonier Marshmallow Festival. GOSHEN NEWS FILE PHOTO
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