St. Helens City Council decides on a new event coordinator

At a St. Helens City Council special session held Monday evening, June 17, councilors selected Treadway Events & Entertainment as the city’s new events coordinator.

Two finalists for the position, Treadway and Cascadia Glamping (from Columbia County) were interviewed at the special session, which lasted for more than two hours.

According to Treadway, which is based in Portland, the event firm serves Oregon and Washington by offering “immersive, fun and safe environments” for event goers. Treadway previously ran the 2022 and 2023 Scappoose Adventure Festivals.

The council voted to direct staff to issue a notice of intent to award the events management services request for proposals to Treadway. City Administrator John Walsh noted that once the notice is issued there will be a seven-day protest period to contest the decision.

Tina Curry will be wrapping up a somewhat embattled term as the city’s events coordinator, with some in the community highly critical of her management of events and others very supportive, especially of her efforts at turning Halloweentown into an event that has received worldwide attention. Curry’s contract runs through June 30.

At a special session held June 12, city councilors selected Treadway Events & Entertainment and Cascadia Glamping as the two finalists. They also considered Curry (E2C Corporation) and Angela Wayman.

Candidates were solicited via a special events request for proposals, in which companies can “bid” to be contracted for the work. Based on a points system, Cascadia finished on top, followed by Treadway, E2C Productions and Angela Wayman.

Upon hearing the news June 12, Curry was critical of the RFP process.

“The RFP is seriously flawed in so many ways,” Curry said. “It’s glaringly fraudulent. It does not tell people anything. I’ve made major complaints about it before they even sent it out. You are not giving people enough information to accurately bid this work.”

Curry said, however, that she will fulfill the completion of her contract.

“I’m going to absolutely fulfill my piece of the contract, which goes until June 30,” she said.

Curry has been involved with event management in St. Helens since 2014, when she oversaw the Wind & Wave Festival, followed by the Spirit of Halloweentown and Christmas Tree Lighting in 2015. She first contracted with the city for her current position in 2017.

Curry could not speculate on whether more performances will be added to 13 Nights on the River, which will be held at McCormick Park this year due to construction on the riverfront.

“I have bands that are on the docket,” Curry said. “I just haven’t announced them because it goes beyond my contract date. So, they absolutely have bands that are lined up. Whether a new contractor can afford to float the cash for it is another thing altogether.”

As for the future of Halloweentown, Curry could not predict how the event might change with a new contractor, if at all.

“My creation of what Halloweentown has become can be completely different than another person that is doing it,” she said. “That’s their prerogative to do that.”

At the earlier June 12 council meeting, Mayor Rick Scholl said he would have preferred to have Curry interviewed.

“I really would like to see E2C as part of that,” Scholl told fellow councilors. “Having had experience in running this from the start, to where it’s at now, I feel like we should be obligated to, at least, allow an interview. That’s just me.”