Skip to content
News
Link copied to clipboard

Mummers announce they’ll pay parade costs

George Badey (right) with Save the Mummers joins Mayor Michael Nutter (left) and U.S. Rep. Bob Brady earlier today to announce that the city and Mummers had reached a deal for the annual New Year's Day parade. ( Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer )
George Badey (right) with Save the Mummers joins Mayor Michael Nutter (left) and U.S. Rep. Bob Brady earlier today to announce that the city and Mummers had reached a deal for the annual New Year's Day parade. ( Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer )Read more

The Mummers' feathers are no longer ruffled.

They have agreed to pay the City of Philadelphia about $150,000, more than two-thirds of it raised already, to pay for police, street cleanup and other costs associated with the New Year's Day march down Broad Street.

At a press conference today, Mayor Michael Nutter called the announcement "the worst-kept secret in Philadelphia" because news organizations had been reporting that the two sides had reached detente for several days.

A city decision last year to enforce a Rendell-era policy of charging public events for the costs the city incurs to hold them had cast doubt on the survival of the 108-year-old Mummers march.

But Nutter and his team, along with Rep. Bob Brady and Councilmen Jim Kenney and Frank DiCicco, worked to raise money to help the Mummers and to cut city costs. By agreeing to charge the Mummers only for the extra costs of the parade, the city was able to cut its bill in half, to about $150,000. For example, some police already on duty that day will be reassigned to the parade, and the Mummers will not be charged for them, Deputy Mayor Everett Gillison said.

The city also agreed to give the Mummers a breakdown if its costs, an issue that had remained in contention as recently as Monday.

George Badey, a Mummer organizing a fundraising effort at www.savethemummers.com, said he was pleased with the final agreement.

"We all know that it wasn't Mayor Nutter's fault that the world economy collapsed over the last year," he said.