City Commissioners voted unanimously during a special meeting on April 1 to uphold staff’s decision to issue a street closure permit that includes Central Avenue through to 9th Street for this year’s Cruisin’ the Drag.

Staff at Great Falls Subaru had asked the city for details about the event last fall and had asked that the closure of Central Avenue stopped at 8th Street to maintain access to their business.

Subaru raised their concerns with city staff in November, before organizers had submitted their permit application for the May 3 event, which is the 25th anniversary of the event with an anticipated 800 to 900 cars and about 30,000 people.

The city issued the street closure permit to Cruisin’ the Drag including all of Central Avenue through to 9th Street.

Jeremy Day, Great Falls Subaru owner, appealed that decision.

Commissioners considered that appeal during their special meeting on April 1.

Day told commissioners that he’d offered support to the event organizers, who will no longer meet with him, and had offered the use of a Subaru owned parking lot to avoid having their block closed for the day long event on a Saturday.

Day said that in 2023, the organizers kept his block open and asked to do that again in 2024 but the organizers refused.

He said there were no safety concerns from the city when his block was left open for the event in 2023.

May is the largest car sales month in Montana, Day said, and it’s “critical” they are able to operate normally since if customers are unable to access the business for a full Saturday he could lose in excess of $100,000 worth of business.

City Manager Greg Doyon said that Cruisin’ the Drag is a popular annual event downtown and this year’s event is the 25th anniversary.

He said city staff reviewed ordinances and the permit was properly issued balancing safety and needs of downtown businesses.

Doyon said local businesses benefit from the event and they’re expecting about 150 cars on Subaru’s block.

Doyon said no other downtown businesses objected to the event and street closure so city staff was asking commissioners to deny Subaru’s appeal.

Brian Drewes, Subaru’s general manager, said he’d been with the dealership for about 14 years, through Bennett, Lithia and now Day’s ownership.

He said the dealership had been part of Cruisin’ the Drag for years and in the earlier days, the barricades were open to allow drivers to access the service department.

Drewes said Subaru is different than other downtown businesses in that they need the vehicles in the building to complete services like oil changes or other maintenance.

Darrin Schreder, Cruisin’ the Drag organizer, said that when Bennett Motors started the show they had 400 to 500 cars.

When his group took over the show in 2023, they had about 500 cars and it grew to 783 cars in 2024.

“We weren’t prepared for that,” Schreder said and they had cars parked down the middle of Central Aveue, which was a liability for organizers.

Schreder said the event brings $500,000 to Great Falls over two days and if they lost the 800 block and had to turn cars away, it would be the demise of their show.

Day said that he was offering a parking lot with room for 80 cars in exchange for leaving his block open so customers can easily access Subaru.

Commissioner Rick Tryon moved to uphold the staff decision.

Commissioner Susan Wolff said that “communication goes a long way. If you all get together, you can figure this out, you can make it a win win, it doesn’t have to be us versus them. You can work this out.”

Tryon asked if he could ask questions, to which City Attorney David Dennis and Mayor Cory Reeves said they’d already passed that specific portion of the agenda, but Tryon asked his questions anyway.

Tryon said he was curious if the impact on Subaru was limited to oil changes or if it impacted sales.

Day had said, and addressed specifically in his written appeal, that the closure affected both the service department and sales.

In his written comments, Day told commissioners that, “the road closures at 9th and Central blocked our entrances, resulting in no sales for Great Falls Subaru on the day of the event [in 2024]. In addition, our service department had to cancel all appointments due to restricted access. This not only directly impacted our revenue but also diminished our ability to serve the community. Furthermore, this lost business meant that we were unable to donate the level of financial support to local causes that we typically provide. As a business that prides itself on supporting the community, the inability to serve our customers and contribute financially was a serious setback.”

Day said that when Subaru’s block remained open during the 2023 event, they had record sales and donated $50,000 to the community.

Tyron ased city staff if there was a significant impact to public safety during the event.

Great Falls Police Chief Jeff Newton said that blocking Central without proper signage and people manning the barricades to help direct traffic and be a concern, but in case of an emergency, police vehicles are able to maneuver more easily than fire engines.

Newton said they hadn’t had an issue in the last two years.

Great Falls Fire Chief Jeremy Jones said that when they reviewed the application, they looked for ingress and egress.

He said that their concern is the high rise buildings in downtown if there was a fire or emergency and that they work with event organizers to make sure there’s quick access to Central if needed.

Tryon said that he remembered cruising the drag, actually driving down Central and around down in his younger days, and that it’s “part of our culture here in Great Falls.”

Commissioner Shannon Wilson said that Subaru was accessible from the alley and 1st Avenue South if Central was closed.

Drewes said that with 30,000 people downtown, “it’s chaos” and people park in the alley and side streets making it  difficult for their customers to access Subaru and that there’s “no one to direct the traffic.”

Commissioner Joe McKenney said that he goes to the event every year and agrees Central should be closed through to 9th Street.

He thanked Subaru for investing in downtown but Cruisin’ the Drag was a long time event and he was thinking about new neighbors who complain about those types of things.

McKenney said he was thinking of people who buy a house near the airport then complain about the noise, or purchase property near the refinery then complain about it.

He said he felt the same way about Cruisin’ the Drag.

Wolff said she really struggled with the decision and “spent more time on this than the rest of the packet,” referring to the other items on their agenda that night.

She said that as a Subaru customer it’s not easy to access the property when Central is closed but that she would vote in favor of city staff.

“But if the two of you guys don’t get together, you’re gonna hear from me and I wanna know that you’re getting together,” Wolff said.