Businesses say ‘no thanks’ to franks
By RYAN BRINKS, TIMES-REPUBLICAN
POSTED: May 9, 2008
There will be no Thanks With Franks event in downtown Marshalltown next month due to a lack of business participation.
The Central Business District’s Promotions Committee canceled the annual event this week after what they called a long and hard decision-making process.
Crowds have continually grown for the free appreciation event but this year’s roster of downtown businesses able to hand out hot dogs was missing a third of last year’s total of 37, said committee member DyAnne Henry.
“It would be suicidal to go ahead and have it and not have enough hot dogs,” she said.
Last year more than 11,000 hot dogs were given away within an hour. The group of volunteer organizers also were not willing to have the hot dogs cut in half, which was tried in a previous year.
The event was scheduled for June 19 and would have been the sixth year of the tradition.
“We just feel bad about it because we thought it was a neat event to get people mingling and enjoying a band downtown. But times change,” Henry said.
Thanks With Franks was not one of the public events where dogs are banned.
The social event, like others put on by the MCBD throughout the year, requires both a committee of pro-downtown volunteers from across the city as well as sponsoring Main Street businesses.
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Contact Ryan Brinks at 641-753-6611 or rbrinks@timesrepublican.com
