City: Bond’s burnouts caused $15,000-worth of damage to downtown street
Ahead of its car show, the city warned Bond’s not to allow burnouts, citing damage from the prior year. The burnouts happened regardless and the city has slapped the brewery with a bill for repairs.
Bond’s Brewing Co. in downtown Laramie is on the hook for more than $15,000-worth of street damage caused by a recent fundraising event, according to a letter from the city manager.
In the letter, City Manager Janine Jordan writes that the event violated the special event permit and ignored both written and verbal warnings about prohibited activities.
“The event created an unsafe situation and posed significant risk of bodily injury to spectators and participants, as well as the potential for damage to adjacent private property,” the letter alleges.
Bond’s Brewing hosted the “Burnouts & Brews” car show Aug. 5, raising money for Laramie Connections, a local nonprofit that offers free hot meals every Sunday and, by appointment, free transportation across town for those who have none. The event raised $4,500 for the nonprofit, according to an online post from the brewery.
The event itself shut down a section of 2nd Street and featured live music, food trucks and, as the name implies, burnouts.
A “burnout” involves spinning a vehicle’s wheels while keeping the vehicle itself stationary, which heats up the tires and casts off smoke. It can also scuff up road paint and damage a road’s protective top layer — which is what happened during Bond’s event.
The City of Laramie puts the price of the necessary repairs at $15,250 — $5,000 for mobilization and traffic control, $7,900 for chip and seal, $1,550 for parking paint and another $800 for sidewalk thermoplastics.
It’s the second year in a row that the Burnout and Brews event has damaged downtown roads, according to the city letter. When Bond’s Brewing applied for the special event permit this year, city officials granted permission for the event explicitly on the condition that no burnouts would occur.
“During the pre-event, in-person meeting on June 19, 2023, Bond’s Brewing was verbally informed that vehicle ‘burnouts’ were prohibited at the event,” the letter states. “You were made aware that the street surface had been damaged by such activities the prior year. City staff informed you that the event sponsor and permit holder, Bond’s Brewing, would be held responsible for such damages. The application subsequently submitted for this event did not indicate any burnout, or other displays of speed, would occur with the event described as a ‘car show with live music in the evening as well as a few food trucks.’”
Despite these warnings, the event featured burnouts — the traces of which can still be seen on the road.
“It was observed on the day of the event that the area of 2nd Street, between Custer and Kearney Streets, appeared intentionally staged and designed to accommodate the prohibited activities including burnouts and displays of speed along 2nd Street and nearby streets in close proximity to spectators and participants,” the city letter states.
Videos of the event had been removed from Facebook, but a post thanking “everyone that made yesterday a great success” shows a plastic Bond’s Brewing cup full of golden beer placed on a scuffed up crosswalk.
Mallory Bond, the co-owner of Bond’s Brewing and the event contact listed on the permit, did not respond to a request for comment.
City Manager Jordan said she hasn’t heard from Bond or the brewery yet either. The letter asks the brewery’s owners to reach out, provide a copy of their insurance policy, and set up a meeting with the city’s risk manager. But none of that has happened yet.
Jordan said the black lines on the road and crosswalk are likely to remain there until next year’s thaw.
“I don't have a plan right now for when we'll conduct the repairs — they weren't scheduled and that's part of the problem,” she said. “There's a limited window of time in the summer when we can perform certain maintenance on street roads. With it being fall, we're very close to the end of the year. So it's very likely we're not gonna be able to make the repairs fully until next summer.”
😬😜😍I think they planned this