BOISE -- A dispute over damages to a Boise Park leads to the city filing a lawsuit against the organizer of an annual beer festival. But the organizer says the money the city is demanding is way out of line.
The city of Boise says the 2011 Barley Brothers Traveling Beer Festival caused thousands in damage to Ann Morrison Park.
"We had a lot of vehicles that were parked on the grass," said Adam Park, with the City of Boise. "There was a new event that we weren't informed of, of beer can tossing, that caused a lot of damage. Also, there was a spike put in the ground that damaged part of a park sprinkling system."
The city filed a complaint, seeking $7,886 for Boise Police security costs and damage to the park grass. They say the initial bill for damage was about $11,000, until the city decided to replace other turf and got a better deal. That lowered that charge to around $4,000.
Despite the discount, festival organizer Rick Boyd says that raised a red flag for him.
"We've gotten so many stories that we simply just don't trust Boise Parks and Rec," said Boyd.
He also says he's being charged much more than in previous years, and for damage that his event didn't do. He cites pictures of the park following other events from weeks before that left brown patches of their own.
"I'm perfectly willing to pay for any damages that were the result of our event," said Boyd. "I just want an explanation from them and some evidence to support their claims that we caused more damage than in previous years."
"We've given them extensive documentation, both in terms of photos and bills showing the different charges," said Park. "It's important that the organization that incurred the damage, should pay for that and not the taxpayers."
Boyd says he's moving the event to Meridian this summer. Both sides say it's a shame their relationship had to end like this but put blame on the other.
"It is a shame," said Boyd. "They are an incredibly difficult organization to work with."
"We want to encourage these types of events, we just have to have an event organizer that is going to do what they promise," said Park.
Boyd says he has no problem with the bill to Boise Police for security and intends to pay it, but adds that they won't send him an invoice. The city says Boyd has known about that charge for months.
Boyd also says he hasn't even been served the lawsuit, yet. The city says he has been served the summons and complaint and that he has 20 days from that day to file an answer and set his defense. If an answer isn't filed, the city will seek a default judgment for that $7,886.
