GREEN BAY — The president of Friends of Bay Beach Inc. Dave Charles had a simple request for City Council gathered Tuesday evening: vote no to return Cellcom’s $100,000 donation for the restoration of Bay Beach’s shoreline in exchange for $100,000 worth of Wi-Fi at Bay Beach Amusement Park.
“It sets a horrible precedent to raise funds in the future,” Charles testified at the Tuesday meeting. “No one’s ever welched on these donations and said, ‘Give me my money back.'”
The council did so, denying the two relevant agenda items that the Park Committee originally passed unanimously in their Oct. 24 meeting , which would have given back the donation to the Lawrence-based cell provider and installed 16 Wi-Fi access points to the tune of $75,000 in installation and infrastructure costs, and 50 months of public Wi-Fi valued at $25,000.
Council member Melinda Eck, who chairs the Parks Committee, expressed a change of heart since the unanimous committee vote to “think more about it, and it didn’t seem right.” She motioned to deny the first relevant agenda item to return the $100,000 donation, seconded by council member Ben Delie, immediately following Cellcom’s director of government relations Michael O’Malley’s defense of returning their charity.