Apparently, Metro Louisville has decided to increase fees for officers to block roads for road races. Below is an e-mail I received from Camille Estes at Fleet Feet this morning advising us the No Boundaries run has been cancelled!!!

Due to recently instituted fees from Louisville Metro, the No Boundaries 5k/10k has to be canceled. All entry fees received will be refunded by mail. If you have any questions, please contact us at staff@fleetfeetlouisville.com.

With this new fee ($100/officer, city decides how many you need) will cause many smaller races to go away. It will be virtually impossible financially for new races to get started. With the Mayor's Healthy Hometown initiative, it's a shame there won't be anymore runs/walks to aspire to and keep them training. If you would like more specific details, send us an email, staff@fleetfeetlouisville.com.

If you like to see these fees reduced or just eliminated, you can contact the mayor's office, you can click here to send him an email asking the mayor not to let all these road races disappear.

Please e-mail the Mayor and let him know this is wrong. It is hypocritical for him to push his initiative and allow this sort of thing to happen. Speak up and let him know!

You can click here to email the mayor.

I don't know if this is possible or a good idea but should we post this on RW with attention to Louisvillians? The more the better...

I found out by walking into fleet feet yesterday, Camille told me about it. I was really bummed cause I have been really training hard for my 1st 10K. Anyway, I am gonna send Jerry a email today. Yes, I do think this should be posted on the RW forum cause it is an issue worth speaking about. Let me know if anyone hears of any local 10K's this year.

I have sent an email with Camille's notice, and my 2cents to the Courier-Journal. I figured it couldn't hurt. I just don't want to see all our race choices dwindling down to mainly profit events.

Here is the response from the Mayor's office:

-----Original Message-----
From: Fenster, Steve A
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 4:55 PM
Subject: FW: New officer fee for run/walks

Dear Mr. Johnson,

Thanks for taking the time to write about the fees involved in community
events like road races. This was not a decision we made lightly, as we
understood that many community events would be affected.

We had been able to provide traffic control services for community
events for a long time with little cost to the event organizers.
However, a number of factors have challenged our police department's
ability to accommodate every event.

First, on any given weekend from early spring to the holiday season,
there are at least two or three events that require police coordination
(traffic control, crowd control, street closures and the like). Every
officer that we assign to those details is either assigned there as part
of a regular shift, which takes that officer away from other police
work, or is an overtime assignment, which costs much more per hour. The
number of requests we get for police coverage continues to grow,
straining our resources further.

Many of these events are for several hundred to a couple thousand
people. In the larger perspective, we have to balance the safety
interests of the entire community of 700,000 residents with the needs of
a road race that could involve 500 people.

Second, in every instance where event organizers have indicated they'll
have trouble paying for the traffic service, our officers have offered
to help find alternatives. The fees are not static; fewer major
intersections blocked means fewer officers needed. We can work with
organizers to find other routes to meet the needs of the event while not
overwhelming city resources.

We remain committed to the Healthy Hometown Movement, and our police
department is more than cooperative with organizers to help find ways to
continue events that meet their budget needs. In these tight economic
times, I am sure you can understand how critical it is that we spend
taxpayer dollars wisely.

Thanks again for writing.

Jerry Abramson

I also sent a letter to Darla Carter (Health & Fitness Reporter) and the Editor at the Courier-Journal. I'll let you know what I hear from them if anything.