Sumner’s city council voted June 6 to begin a schedule of cost-offsetting fees for city events, to be implemented July 6. In the 30 days between, 25 event permit applications were submitted in a mad dash to register without paying fees.

“We did not contemplate that kind of an action,” City Administrator Diane Supler said in her staff report to the council Monday. “As a result we probably won’t have the revenues we estimated for the coming year.”

The fee schedule for special events was enacted to offset costs Sumner’s government incurs for the many events that take place in the city, costs such as administrative processing and security provided by police.

Three fee classes are in place. Type 1 events—those that cost less than $1,500—incur a total fee of $400. Type 2 events—costing between $1,501 and $2,500—incur a $600 fee. All events that cost greater than $2,500 incur a fee of $1,200.

Sumner Downtown Association applied for 15 of the permits; six for 2011 and nine for 2012. Downtown merchants applied for three annual events in each of the years of 2011, 2012 and 2013, for a total of nine. Old Cannery Furniture Warehouse applied for its holiday bridge lighting in winter 2011.

Most of the events for which applications were sent fall in the lowest class of fees, $400. One of the applications, for the Classy Chassis car show, falls in the Type 2 $600 class of fees.

A partial list of other events applied for, provided by Supler, include the Mystery Wine Walk, Autumn Evening, Halloween Street of Treats, Home for the Holidays, the Santa Parade, and the Old Cannery Bridge Lighting.

In all, the events represented between $10,200 and $10,400 of revenue that would have gone to the city. For 2011, they represent $4,200 in lost event fees.