The Town Council held its quarterly, no-agenda Citizens Forum Public Meeting last night and people brought up plenty of concepts and concerns, including prairie dogs. And, just like prairie dogs, the Arts & Crafts Fairs controversy popped-up again.

Geody Madden expressed frustration that Gross Receipts Tax data cannot pinpoint the holiday weekends’ effects on retailers’ sales.  He made a plea for the Council to do further study. Council members heard him out at length, but Mayor Cordova pointed out that the decision had been made. The fairs will not be presented in Kit Carson Park on Memorial and Labor Day weekends and the Town needed to move forward.

Madden insisted the entire process had not been fairly studied or judged. He pointed out that more than 300 individuals had signed a petition in support of holiday fairs, as had 52 Taos businesses, including his own.

Madden said: “We’re on all sides of the issue, we have a store, we promote fairs, and we participate in the shows. We believe it could have been done in a better way. What we need is the people who accused us to provide their information. We’re just defending ourselves; that’s all.”