LEWISTON — Councilors agreed Tuesday night to cap the number of city-funded special events, festivals and races but they made the cap higher than staff suggested.

“My concern is that we give the impression that Lewiston has no interest in anything new coming to town,” Councilor Nate Libby said Tuesday night.

Councilors approved a new special events policy designed to limit city staff’s involvement in setting up, patrolling and cleaning up after special events.

The new policy says 17 walks, runs or road races like the Dempsey Challenge would be approved to get staff help without special council approval. It also allows up to 18 festivals or special events such as the Great Falls Balloon Festival.

Phil Nadeau, Lewiston’s deputy city administrator, said it’s a budget-saving measure, meant to help the city fund the events and festivals that are important.

“One or two more events will not tip the balance of what we are capable of what we are doing, assuming that our staffing levels are not drastically reduced,” Nadeau said. “I will say that if our staffing levels change in the next budget, we will update the council on what we can do.”

Nadeau said city staff provided support for 15 races and 16 festivals in 2014. Councilors added two more to each category to allow new festivals to come in, and approved the policy by a 7-0 vote.

City Administrator Ed Barrett said staff would be happy to work at all the events, if councilors were willing to pay the overtime costs associated with the work.

“The council wants us to control overtime, and these events usually take overtime,” he said. “So we’ve tried to strike a balance, where we have supported these events in the past and the council has approved that much overtime in the past.”

The new policy is also meant to streamline the special event approval process. Event planners need to fill out three different forms now to get city help, but the new rules would combine them into one form.

It puts all special events management into the city administrator’s office and makes it more clear when city councilors must approve events and when city financial help is not possible. It also more clearly defines city fees and explains city policy regarding liability insurance.

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