NILES — Although it was not on the docket, public speakers during Niles City Council’s Monday evening meeting informed officials of issues that arose during the Niles Family Fun Fair and Bluegrass/American Music Festival.

By the end of the regular council meeting, all officials who spoke appeared to agree that changes needed to be made for the annual event, which ran this year from May 30 to June 2.

The speakers also sparked a conversation on whether the city had enough funds to staff a public safety team adequate to the size of the city.

Resident Doug Beckwith said that a lack of a police presence lead to fights breaking out at the community event.

He said it was a great fair, but he only saw one officer. Beckwith saw two fights break out within 15 minutes of each other.

Multiple residents called, he said, including himself.

“There is not enough police force,” he said. “We do need more police officers on duty, because when we have 1,000, 2,000 people downtown and one police officer for that fair, and there’s not security going on, stuff like this is going to happen.”

He said he’s talked to numerous officers, but has found that budget to support more officers is not there.

“Figure it out,” he said. “That’s what you guys are here for.”

Scott Moore was concerned about the increasing number of attendees the event draws. He owns the Wonderland Cinema, which sits next to Riverfront Park and its public parking.

He wants the festival to move.

The police had to break up fights in his parking lot, his bathrooms have been destroyed, and he has been refunding patrons who could not find a parking space before their movie began, he said.

“I got employees that don’t want to work the festival weekend anymore,” he said. “It’s just becoming so much downtown.”

Councilmember Jessica Nelson agreed that the festival had outgrown its “small” space, leading to safety issues and trash problems.

“That park is treasure for us, and I feel like to respect it and keep it nice is important,” she said.

Nelson said she thought that music festival brought in one group of people, while the fair brought in another group. The “juxtaposition” between the two groups could have led to the tensions Beckwith spoke about, she said.

Councilmember Gretchen Bertschy agreed with the two public speakers as well. She noted that the underfunding of city staff, especially public safety staff, was a problem for the festival and fair’s near-unsupervised status.

“Our workforce is amazing,” she said. “In my opinion, you’re vastly underpaid. If I could give you each a million [dollars], I would.”

She agreed with Councilmember William Weimer, who said that the council should consider a special public safety millage that could be brought to city residents for a vote.

“I believe we need to bring that forward now to at least break even on the services we’re providing to the city,” he said.

Councilmember John DiCostanzo agreed, noting that the city’s millage, which was approved later that night unanimously, was the highest the state would allow.

At the meeting, the council also approved the following items unanimously:

• A $2,500 city contribution to sponsor the 2019 Fort St. Joseph Archaeology Open House.

• A request from the Niles Park Board and the Downtown Development Authority to host a Niles Summer Festival on Aug. 2 and 3 at Riverfront Park.

• A $3,000 expenditure to filter fuel and clean the 8,000 gallon underground fuel tank for Niles’ Dial-A-Ride Transportation service. Water was found to be in the fuel, which made fuel pumping slow. Clean Fuels of Keystone, Indiana will fix the issue.

• A payment of $3,425 to Villa Environmental Consultants to provide environmental testing to Island Park. After a 2018 flood, the city decided to test the soil quality of the park before considering restoration.

• A 1-percent administrative fee to be levied on all taxes collected. DiCostanzo said during discussion that the fee was meant to reimburse city residents. The fee is charged to assess property values and collect taxes

• The revised bylaws for the Fort St. Joseph Archaeology Committee. The bylaws change the committee’s board from 15 to 13 and eliminate all subcommittees that have not met the past three years.

• The council also approved Edward VanderVries, one of a handful of level four-certified assessors with power plant experience in the state, to be the assessor of record for the upcoming Indeck Niles Power Plant.

VandenHeede was the sole “no” vote. He worried that the city did not make enough effort to consider other assessors and questioned whether VanderVries would represent the city.

DiCostanzo said VanderVries would, noting that the assessor helped Indeck’s tax plan while representing the city’s interests.