LISBON

The Lisbon Town Council is holding a public forum Tuesday at 7 p.m. to discuss the future of the Moxie Festival.

According to an announcement about the forum, “All people who value the Moxie Festival — residents, visitors, businesses, community groups and organizations — are asked to attend and participate in this important decision.”

The meeting will be held at the Lisbon Town Office, located at 300 Lisbon St.

Town Manager Steve Eldridge said Wednesday that since the Moxie Festival has been going on over the last 30 years, it has been managed by many different groups, most recently the Androscoggin Chamber of Commerce with the help of local volunteers — with the idea the organization would wean itself from the job and Lisbon would take over running the festival completely. It was never clarified who that would be though — the town or business community or someone else. The town took over the job about five years ago, and has put on the festival every year since, with the help of volunteers including a core group of volunteers such as longtime volunteer Brenda Rogers of Rogers Insurance.

It is an endeavor, however, that Eldridge said has drained an increasing amount of municipal staff time. It has become a very large task and in the last two years, when that task has fallen to Scott Benson, the town’s economic and community development director, drew upwards of 65,000 people to Lisbon over the three-day event.

The council is concerned about how staff time is used and what other things fall by the wayside during that period, Eldridge said. However they recognize the Moxie Festival is the town’s trademark and at no other time of the year do 55,000 people descend on the town.

Eldridge said running the larger-scale Yarmouth Clam Festival is a 20-hour-a-week, year-long position supported by staff through the local chamber of commerce. Funding a 20-hour-a-week position can get expensive, he said. The festival has been able to generate enough money to reimburse the town for public safety costs, but if the town wants the festival, it will cost money, Eldridge said.

The forum will be run by Benson, Rogers and council chairman Fern Larochelle. Eldridge said the forum should be positive and hopes many people will attend, ask questions and provide ideas, which the council will be collecting. Eldridge noted a new proactive business community group in Lisbon, Positive Change Lisbon!, has been inquiring about this issue and is expected to have representatives at the meeting.

The Moxie Festival has become a very large festival and officials are attempting to analyze who benefits from it, Eldridge said. It definitely benefits the municipality and town as a whole and the council wants to hear from the public and business community about what they value about the festival and how they think the town should move forward.