Oh well.
The additional funding provided for the completion of the carillon came from the city’s newly (at the time) raised food and beverage tax. The additional 1% tax tacked on to the bill of all downtown Naperville bars and restaurants provided an additional $2,600,000 in revenue in its first year alone.
If they city has the money, why not spend it? I wonder if people protested Centennial Beach or The Riverwalk when they were first constructed. Can you even imagine the downtown Naperville area now without The Riverwalk? Hopefully the carillon will have the same effect.
There was a pretty decent crowd for the grand opening today, much larger than the average crowd that comes out for the Thursday night concerts-
I wasn’t lucky enough to have one of the tickets to be among the first people to climb the tower… But I’ll make my way over there Wednesday afternoon if I have the time.
All in all it was a good day with great weather. I even got to shake the hand of the city manager, Peter Burchard.
