Nonprofits Squeezed
In Silver Spring

 

The 2,000-capacity Fillmore, which rents the county-owned building for $3.2 million annually, reportedly charges the county a base cost of $1,900 for the first 20 such events and $3,000 for the next 10. 

 

Additionally, sponsors of community events incur fees of $750 per day for cleanup, $200 per hour for ambulance service, $100 per hour for paramedics, $25 hourly for ticket takers and ushers, $35 per hour for security (four-hour minimum) and $40 per hour for police (three-hour minimum), according to the rate card reviewed by the paper.

Silver Spring councilman Mark Elrich told the paper he found the rates agreed to “obscenely high.” 

 

“What kind of community groups have that kind of money to spend on a space which the county built and paid for with its own money? I’m at a lost to get where these rates come from and why the rates aren’t substantially lower given the income that we know is generated for the Fillmore,” Elrich told the paper.

 

Elrich acknowledged the Fillmore is “abiding by the terms of their contract,” but that the “community deserves better than what they’ve gotten so far.”

 

County Executive Isiah Leggett told the paper there are “challenges related” to the community rentals that officials are still trying to sort out.

 

The state and county spent about $11.2 million to convert a former J.C. Penney store into a concert venue that was originally expected to be managed by The Birchmere. Instead, the county struck a deal with Live Nation and the venue opened in 2011.