Irvine : Lack of Money May Sink the City’s Float

Facing an Aug. 1 deadline, the Irvine Rose Parade Float Assn. so far has raised only $12,000 of the $40,000 needed to place the city’s float in the annual New Year’s Day parade.

The payment, one-third of the cost of building the float, originally was supposed to be delivered to the Fiesta Float Co. by mid-July, but an extension has been granted, according to Donna Harwood, a spokeswoman for the float organizers.

The group raised $2,000 through phone solicitations earlier this month. But whether the float will float is still “too close to call,” Harwood said. “We have a lot of work to do.”

In a final attempt to meet the payment schedule, the association will be sending a letter to all members of the Irvine Chamber of Commerce seeking pledges of support. If that fails, “basically we’re out of business,” Harwood said. “But we’ll really go down trying to save the float.”

Large corporate donations that the float committee had expected have not materialized. The Irvine Co., which has given considerable financial help to community-based projects in the past, has donated office space for the administration of the project but has not contributed any money.

“It is really just a matter of unfortunate timing,” Harwood said. “It is the middle of summer, and nobody’s thinking about New Year’s or floats. And with the layoffs at the Irvine Co., it’s just a sticky situation.”