Evanston aldermen this week declined a request from organizers of Saturday’s anti-war rally at Fountain Square to waive the $150 in city fees for the event.
But the aldermen, meeting as the Administration and Public Works Committee, did ask city staff to develop an amendment to the city’s rules that would let organizers of a series of events submit a single application for several events and pay just one application fee.
Since the North Shore Anti-War Coalition has been staging a series of protests at Fountain Square, the combined application plan could reduce its costs.
Rally organizer Dickelle Fonda had asked the aldermen to waive or reduce the fee, since the aldermen approved a resolution last fall opposing the war in Iraq.
But Alderman Delores Holmes, 5th Ward, said that if the city waived the fee for the anti-war group it would have to do the same for all other event-organizers in the city.
The rally is scheduled for noon Saturday to mark the three-year anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq.
It will be followed by a march through downtown ending at the Davis Street CTA station. Marchers can take the train to an another anti-war rally at Union Park in Chicago, which is scheduled to be followed by a march on Michigan Avenue.
The Chicago Tribune reports organizers of the Chicago march say they had to be creative to get Chicago officials to approve it.